Central Park Zoo Chronicles
by radredknuxfan
Summary: What kind of antics do the animals of the Central Park Zoo engage in when the humans aren't looking? This is essentially a series of stories that detail life around the zoo for the animals, with the focus of each story on one of the main animals from the show, rotating with each chapter.
1. Paranoia (Skipper)

I think it's time to attempt my first Penguins of Madagascar story. While I'm not the biggest fan of the show, I do really like the humor as well as all of the interactions between the characters. It kind of makes me wish that it wasn't on Nickelodeon (a network I've stopped watching cause of the high concentration of bad shows to good shows), cause I'd really like to watch it more.

Anyhoo, I didn't want to go too ambitious for my first one, with me not being as experienced with this as with Regular Show (which you should go to my profile to read), so I decided to just do a simple life around the zoo fic, but with the focus of the story rotating around each of the characters each chapter. I won't reveal the actual order so you guys can be surprised, but do know the penguins will be split up (meaning there will be a chapter focusing on another one of the animals before the next penguin). So let's get it started with…

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1 – Paranoia (Skipper's Story)<strong>

It was nighttime at the zoo, and Skipper and the rest of the penguins have just returned after a rare failed mission, which involved having to retrieve King Julien's crown, which Mort accidentally dropped down the sewer. While Skipper himself wasn't interested, considering the bad blood between the two of them, but Private and Marlene managed to convince him to do it.

Needless to say, the Rat King beat them to it, and considering how caught off guard they were by his appearance, they got their butts handed to them, and they were forced to retreat.

While the penguins were pretty disappointed at losing out on the crown (having to explain it to Julien was no picnic either), Skipper seemed to be the most distraught.

Being the commander of a team of penguin commandos meant that he had to make sure that his team was ready for absolutely anything that pops up. His near perfect record of successful missions proves that point. But when a mission like the one that they just went through comes up, it makes him feel like he's failed his team.

Skipper sighed, catching Private's attention. The young penguin walked up to his captain and placed a comforting flipper on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Skipper. I'm sure once we get a plan together; we'll take down the Rat King and get that crown back no problem!"

Even though Skipper was still quite shaken from the ordeal, he knew he had to put up a strong front for the team, so he quickly pulled himself together before replying.

"Thank you, Private. It's nice to see that you guys are still keeping your spirits up, even after a defeat like this."

It was at this point that the penguins finally returned to their habitat, and they all hopped down the hatch, except for Skipper, who was staring into space, lost in thought.

Private soon popped his head back out of the hatch, noticing that Skipper did not follow them in.

"Hey Skipper, are you all right?"

"What? Oh yeah, I'll be down in a minute. Tell Kowalski and Rico to head to bed. I want you guys up early for morning exercises."

"Aye aye, Skipper!"

Private saluted as he climbed back down the hatch, but not before giving Skipper one last worried look.

* * *

><p>The next day started like any other. Skipper woke the rest of the team up, and they spent the morning before the zoo opened doing laps around the pool, Skipper pushing them as hard as he could manage. Once they finished, the three of them exited the pool, exhausted. Private and Kowalski sat down to catch their breath, while Rico simply collapsed.<p>

"Come on, you guys! I know you're all tired, but we've got to get ready for the humans' arrival today!"

Private, Kowalski and Rico all got up with a loud groan before heading towards the hatch to get ready for the zoo's opening. But before Skipper could follow them down, Kowalski stopped in his tracks, turning around to face his commander.

"What's wrong, soldier? We don't exactly have the time for idle chit-chat."

"I'm curious, Skipper. We've never done morning exercises before at that kind of intensity. Mind if I ask what the reasoning is behind this sudden increase?"

"That's because we need to be at tip-top shape if we want to take down the Rat King and get Julien's crown back."

"But we only failed because we were caught off guard! If we just had a plan, we definitely wouldn't be having this kind of problem!"

"Even so, Kowalski, the Rat King is no slouch. He was one tough cookie every time we took him on."

Kowalski sighed, about to say something else when Skipper pushed him down the hatch so that the two of them could get ready for the day.

* * *

><p>After the zoo finally closed for the day, the penguins returned to their hideout. Kowalski went into his lab, Rico started spending some time with Mrs. Perky, and Skipper sat down at the table to think.<p>

Private, meanwhile, waddled up to Skipper as he sat down, intending to ask him about the mission.

"Say Skipper, do you think we're ready to get that crown back yet?"

Skipper temporarily glanced to the side before replying.

"Negatory, Private. We're going to need some more training before we're ready."

"Are you sure, Skipper? I mean, we could just have Rico blow something up down in the sewer. I'm sure that would probably convince the Rat King to give the crown back."

Rico, excited after hearing the words 'blow something up' being mentioned, stood up and horked up a stick of dynamite and a match.

"Kaboom?"

Skipper paused, thinking it over for a moment.

"Only as a last resort, Rico."

Rico groaned, disappointed as he sat down and returned to playing with Mrs. Perky.

"Oh, and the answer's still no, Private."

"Awww. I was hoping we could do it. King Julien looks so sad without his crown. Not to mention the fact that I really don't want to see that unsightly bald patch anymore."

* * *

><p>And so it went for the next few days. Skipper wakes them up in the morning, works them to death in morning drills, and yet continues to refuse to authorize the mission.<p>

At this point, it was starting to irritate the other penguins. So, after successfully managing to ditch Skipper, they went over to the otter habitat to visit Marlene, hoping that she can help out.

"Hey guys. How's getting Julien's crown back going?"

Kowalski cleared his throat before replying.

"Hasn't even started, I'm afraid. Skipper refuses to let us go down into the sewers."

"He's been working us like dogs for the past week, and yet he keeps making excuses!" said Private.

"What?!"

Annoyed, Marlene immediately hopped out of her habitat and began making her way to the penguin habitat, intending to give Skipper a piece of her mind.

"Wait, Marlene! I'm sure Skipper has a good reason for holding up the mission!" said Private.

"I don't care what kind of reason he has! Julien has been constantly asking me where his crown was any chance he gets, and it's annoying me to no end."

Private opened his beak to say something else, but decided against it, instead following Marlene while Rico and Kowalski tried to keep up.

When they returned to the penguin habitat, Marlene was about ready to barge in and start asking questions, when she was suddenly hit with an idea.

"Hey Rico, do you happen to have any rope?"

The weapons expert was confused, wondering what Marlene would want with rope.

"Uh…why?"

"I just want to make sure Skipper doesn't try to run out on us."

Finally understanding, Rico nodded happily before horking up a length of rope, pulling out the remaining length that didn't already come out.

Grabbing the rope, Marlene quietly made her way down the hatch, the other three penguins following close behind. Thankfully, Skipper was still there, so they all snuck up behind him, but he noticed, dodging the attempt at a tackle by Marlene.

The penguins and Marlene spent the next few minutes trying to keep Skipper down so that they could tie him up, but the commander was putting up a good fight. Eventually, Rico managed to take him down, chuckling while the rest of them hogtied Skipper.

"What is the meaning of this insubordination?"

As Skipper lied on the floor fuming, his flippers and feet tied together, Marlene decided to take the initiative on asking the questions.

"Would you mind explaining to me why you haven't done anything about getting King Julien's crown back?"

Skipper sighed, really not wanting to have to explain it again.

"They're not ready yet. Once I feel they're ready, then we'll go."

"After a week of high-intensity training, I feel that our preparedness is more than adequate, Skipper. What's the real reason?" asked Kowalski.

The three penguins and Marlene looked at Skipper angrily. Rico even horked up a pocket knife and opened it up, brandishing it to look more intimidating.

Finally, Skipper sighed in defeat, realizing he wasn't going to win this battle.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I held you back because I was scared of letting you guys down again. I guess I let my paranoid tendencies get the best of me there."

The others noticeably softened after hearing Skipper's apology. Private was the first to speak.

"That's alright, Skipper. You know what Princess Self-Respectra always says…"

The room fell silent, waiting for Private's quote. But it didn't come, as Private was lost in thought, trying to think of his answer.

"What? What did she say?" asked Skipper.

"You know what? I honestly can't think of anything that Princess Self-Respectra would say in this kind of situation."

Everyone groaned, before Kowalski decided to explain.

"Look, I think what Private was trying to say is that even if we fail a hundred more missions, it's not going to make us think any less of you as our commander, Skipper."

Skipper smiled as he looked around at everyone.

"Thanks, you guys. I'm glad to hear it. Anyhoo, if you all are okay with it, I think we have a date with the Rat King."

Everyone cheered before heading towards the hatch.

"Hey, would someone please untie me?!" yelled Skipper.

"Whoops." said Rico, nervously chuckling as he cut the rope with the pocket knife. Skipper then stood up and dusted himself off.

"Alright, people. Move out!"

* * *

><p>Down in the sewers, the penguins and Marlene were creeping along, keeping an eye out for any sign of the Rat King. Eventually, they did find him inside his throne room, the crown sitting next to him as he was making a speech to the rest of the rats.<p>

They immediately pressed up against the wall, before Skipper began making a series of hand signals. Private was confused at first, before realizing that it was the exact same series of hand signals he made himself during their mission at the Winky Factory.

Before he realized it, Rico and Kowalski were already gone, so he was forced to slide along quickly to catch up to them.

Skipper, meanwhile, beckoned for Marlene to come closer so that he could whisper in her ear.

"While the guys are distracting everyone, you and I are going to sneak up and take the crown."

"Gotcha, Skipper."

Skipper then quickly checked around the area to make sure no one was looking before darting around the corner and hiding in the darkness, Marlene following close behind.

Eventually, they made it to where it was a straight shot to the throne, and Skipper signaled across the way to where Rico, Kowalski, and Private were. The three of them walked out and began hula dancing, catching the attention of all of the rats, as well as the king, who immediately got up and started walking over to see what was going on.

This gave Skipper and Marlene their chance. They began slowly creeping their way over to the throne, making sure no one was looking. Eventually, they reached the throne, and Skipper reached out, almost managing to grab the crown when the Rat King turned around and noticed them.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Rico! Kowalski! Private! Attack Formation!"

The four of them immediately jumped together, and went to work, taking down all of the rats like they were nothing. Even Marlene managed to get in on the action some, taking down a few of the rats herself.

Eventually, it was down to just them and the Rat King. Said king chuckled as he cracked his knuckles.

"Well, it seems like you guys didn't get enough of a beating the first time around. Let me show you the true meaning of pain!"

The Rat King then charged, but the penguins all dodged away. They began trading blows, but no one really began to get the advantage until the Rat King suddenly dropped to one knee.

"He's getting tired! Take him down!" yelled Skipper.

Rico immediately charged forward, jumping off of the ground and getting the Rat King in the chest with a flying headbutt, sending him down for the count. The penguins and Marlene traded high fives in celebration.

"Nice work, fellas. Let's get that crown and get out of here."

However, once Private went ahead and grabbed the crown, the Rat King and all of the rats got back up.

"Where do you think you're going with that?"

The Rat King looked at the five of them menacingly as he slowly made his way towards them.

"Rico! Smokescreen!"

Rico did as he was asked, horking up a smoke bomb and setting it off. Skipper grabbed Marlene's hand as the smoke began covering the area, and the group made their escape.

* * *

><p>After returning to the zoo, the penguins and Marlene first went over to the lemur habitat to return the crown.<p>

Once they reached it, they found Julien still sulking, while Maurice and Mort were busy trying to cheer him up. However, Julien was pretty much ignoring the both of them, especially Mort, as it was his fault that the crown went missing in the first place.

"Oh looky here, it is the penguins who can't get de crown back for me! So what? Do you have more bad news for de king?" asked Julien.

Rather than reply, Private pulled out said crown from behind his back. Julien's eyes lit up, and he immediately ran over and grabbed the crown, placing it back on his head.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! I don't know what I would be doing without the crown. It would almost be like I wasn't the king anymore!"

"No problemo, Ringtail. Just try not to drop it down the sewer again. This was the second time we had to get that crown back, and I'm really not interested in getting it a third time." said Skipper.

"Oh, don't you be worrying about dat, my friend. I will be making sure dat this crown never leaves my head again."

Julien accentuated his promise with a glare at Mort.

"I'm sorry, my liege! Can you ever forgive me?" asked Mort, tearing up.

"I don't know. I might be needing some more worshipping to be able to forgive you."

"Oh, I can do that!"

Mort immediately got to his knees and began bowing vigorously to King Julien.

"Yay, I'm so loyal!"

Maurice rolled his eyes before turning towards the penguins.

"Look, thanks for bringing his crown back, you guys. Hopefully this means King Julien will stop being so sulky all the time."

"We're glad to help, Maurice." said Private.

"Anyway, we should probably get going. We all need to get ourselves cleaned up." said Skipper.

Rico decided to illustrate that point by sniffing his armpit.

"Blech!"

The penguins and Marlene left the lemur habitat and went their separate ways, with Marlene returning to her habitat, and the penguins returning home.


	2. Replacement (Marlene)

Sorry for the delay since last chapter. I've been sick, so I haven't really had any energy to write, especially with school starting up again.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2 – Replacement (Marlene's Story)<strong>

It was another normal morning at the zoo. Everyone was just waking up, except for the penguins who were already up and doing their morning exercises. But our story is taking place a few feet away at the Asian Otter exhibit, where Marlene was taking a nice swim, trying to wake up so she can prepare for performing for the humans today.

Marlene poked her head out of the water, breathing a sigh of relief as she climbed back onto solid ground, when she suddenly noticed Alice walking towards her habitat, carrying a small cage similar to what pets would be put into when traveling.

"Hmm…wonder what this is about?" she thought to herself as she walked over to the fence.

As Alice came closer, Marlene noticed that she looked rather surly today, no doubt not liking the fact that she had another mouth to feed, especially with the zoo's budget being stretched thin as it was. She reached over the fence and placed the cage on the ground, opening the door to reveal another otter that looks a lot like her, except for the fact that it was white.

As Alice closed the cage and lifted it back out of the habitat, she decided to say a few words to lighten the mood before leaving.

"Have fun, you two."

Alice soon left, and Marlene walked up to the newcomer, curiously looking her over for a moment before holding out her paw.

"Hi! My name's Marlene. What's yours?"

The newcomer returned the handshake as she started speaking.

"Nice to meet you. The name's Arlene."

Marlene suddenly became a lot less cheerful and a lot more weirded out at the eerie resemblance to her during that time when her fur was bleached white. All she was really hoping for was that she wouldn't have to deal with any more lovey-dovey stuff.

"Hey, listen Arlene, I'll be right back. I need to go visit the penguins for a moment."

"Ooh, can I come with you? I'd love to get to know some of the other guys around the zoo."

Marlene wasn't really enthusiastic about the idea, considering she really wanted to spend some time away from the somewhat creepy newcomer, but she decided that some time together couldn't hurt. Maybe she might end up forming a different impression about her!

"Alright, I don't see why not."

The two of them hopped over the fence and made their way over to the penguin habitat.

* * *

><p>The penguins were preparing for the zoo to open for the day, when the two otters came down the hatch into their HQ.<p>

"Hey guys, how's it going?" asked Marlene.

Skipper was about to answer, when he noticed the fact that there were two of them there.

"Kowalski? Am I seeing double, or is there a second otter standing in front of us?"

Kowalski turned around, wondering what Skipper was talking about, when he also noticed Arlene. He walked over and took a look at the newcomer, making sure that she was in fact real.

"I do not believe you are seeing double, Skipper. There is in fact two of them."

Skipper decided to see for himself whether Arlene was real or not, but as he took a look at her, his expression softened as he suddenly remembered something important.

"Hey, I remember you! Where have you been all my life, Arlene?"

Arlene looked at Skipper, confused.

"Excuse me? I don't think that we've ever met before."

Skipper was crushed after hearing that.

"Why do you have to break my heart like that, Arlene? What did I do wrong?"

Marlene rolled her eyes and got in between them.

"Uh, Skipper? You do realize that that was me with my fur bleached white, remember?"

Skipper was suddenly embarrassed, having forgotten about that one incident.

"How do you know my name, anyway? I don't remember ever telling you guys." said Arlene.

"It's a long story." said Kowalski, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Anyway, what brings you down here, Marlene? You do know that the zoo opens pretty soon, right?"

"Oh, I just came down here to introduce you to Arlene. She just came in this morning."

Private's head popped up, no doubt interested to hear about the newcomer. He walked over to where Arlene was before speaking up.

"Where did you come from, Arlene?"

"Oh, uh…Chicago. Yeah, I came from Chicago."

Skipper instantly became suspicious after noticing how long it took for Arlene to answer that question, but Kowalski was the one who spoke up.

"Curious. I didn't know that the Chicago Zoo had arctic minks."

"Well, it was only for a short time, so I'm sure it probably wouldn't have been brought to your attention."

Arlene put on a fake-looking smile, hoping to deflect any suspicion. It ended up working for everyone except Skipper, whose paranoid tendencies prevented him from believing her. But he decided to wait before making any accusations so he could hopefully figure out what she was up to.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Arlene. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to get ready for when the humans show up."

Skipper shooed them towards the ladder before returning to the rest of his team.

As Marlene and Arlene made their way back to their habitat, Arlene decided to voice a concern she had.

"Are those guys okay?"

Marlene scoffed before replying.

"Don't worry. You'll get used to them."

* * *

><p>After the zoo closed for the day, the penguins headed down to their HQ for some R&amp;R time. Before Skipper could head down the hatch, he noticed Alice walking towards their habitat talking on the phone, so he immediately reacted, jumping down into the hatch, but remaining near the top of the ladder so that he could listen in.<p>

"Look sir, the new otter we got today is really stretching our budget thin here. I mean, with the amount of animals we have already, it's getting more difficult feeding them all, especially with the attendance dropping. We might have to ship one of the otters out to cut costs!"

Skipper was shocked. He climbed down the rest of the ladder after replacing the hatch before addressing the rest of the team.

"Men, we have ourselves a problem. The zoo doesn't have enough money to handle the amount of animals we have now, so they're planning on shipping Marlene out of here!"

Both Private and Rico gasped, not expecting to hear something like that. Kowalski, meanwhile, kept a cool head.

"Now Skipper, Marlene is one of the more popular attractions at the zoo. What makes you think that she's going to be the one shipped out?"

"Because I specifically heard Alice mention the otters and shipping out in the same sentence!"

"Well that seems kind of silly to me, but if she said it, I suppose it might be true."

"What are we going to do, Skippah? Marlene's our best friend! We can't let her be shipped off halfway across the country!" said Private.

"That's easy. We're going to make sure that Arlene is the one that ends up in that box."

"Aww, I was actually beginning to like Arlene." said Private, disappointed.

Skipper gave Private a look before turning to address Kowalski.

"Kowalski, options!"

Kowalski immediately pulled out his notebook and started drawing pictures.

"Well, we could go to Alice's office and switch the records around so that Marlene isn't the one being shipped off."

"Good plan, Kowalski. Anything else?"

"If that plan fails, we can always help Marlene become more popular so that there's more of a reason to keep her."

"Alright, that will be our Plan B. You ready, men?"

Private, Rico and Kowalski all nodded.

"Commence Operation: Doppleganger!"

* * *

><p>The penguins reached Alice's office a little while later. They stacked on top of each other so that they could check to see if Alice was inside. Thankfully she wasn't, so Skipper opened up the window, and the penguins slipped inside.<p>

Once they were inside, Rico and Private started performing lookout duties, while Skipper and Kowalski dealt with the computer.

Minutes passed as Kowalski skimmed through the list of shipments, which was making Skipper nervous.

"Come on, Kowalski, we don't have all day!"

"I'm trying, Skipper! I can't exactly help the fact that I can't read!"

A few seconds later, though, Kowalski did manage to find what he was looking for.

"Ah ha! I found it!"

Suddenly, Rico started babbling randomly. Private immediately went over to where Rico was standing and saw what the weapons specialist was looking at.

"Skippah! Alice at 12:00!"

"How close is she?"

"She's walking pretty fast!"

"Abort mission!"

Kowalski stopped what he was doing and repositioned the computer to where it was before. After that was done, the penguins headed back through the window and closed it behind them, thankfully avoiding being spotted by Alice.

* * *

><p>With the failure of Plan A, the penguins were forced to go to Plan B, so they went over to the otter habitat to find Marlene and Arlene hanging out.<p>

"Hey guys, what's up?" asked Marlene.

"Can we talk to you for a moment, Marlene? Preferably alone?" asked Skipper.

Marlene gave them a weird look, but she followed them away from Arlene, but the arctic mink completely ignored Skipper's request, following as closely to the rest of the group as she could while not being spotted.

"Alright, so what do you guys need to talk to me about?"

"I'm afraid we have some bad news, Marlene. They're looking to ship you out of the zoo and Arlene's planning on replacing you!"

Marlene paused for a second, considering what Skipper just said.

"Mind giving me some proof? I mean, I'd like to believe you, but there have been a lot of times when I believe what you're saying and it ends up with something going horribly wrong."

Skipper really wanted to admit the truth about why this was happening, but his military-trained mind prevented him from doing it.

"I'm afraid the details are classified, but they shouldn't matter! None of us want you to leave, and the only way that'll happen is if Arlene goes in your place."

"Look, I appreciate your concern, but Arlene and I are really hitting it off. I'm sure we're going to be the best of friends, and no one's going to be shipped off anywhere."

"Wait, Marlene!"

Marlene didn't listen, though. Instead, she turned around and headed back towards her habitat.

Skipper sighed, letting his flipper drop to his side. Kowalski walked up to his side.

"So, are we aborting Plan B then, Skipper?"

"No Kowalski, it'll go on as planned. We're just going to have to do this more discreetly."

"But how are we going to help Marlene become more popular and not blow our cover?" asked Private.

"We're just going to have to do our sabotage in advance, then."

* * *

><p>And so they did, sneaking over to the otter habitat while Marlene and Arlene were asleep and setting up many different things that would hopefully ruin Arlene's credibility and drop her increasing popularity that she earned over the past few days.<p>

The next day soon came along like normal. The zoo opened for the day and Marlene and Arlene popped out into the main area of their habitat to entertain the guests. Unfortunately for Arlene, Skipper studied her performance closely, so he knew exactly where she would be going and when.

Things went wrong almost immediately, though, as the first thing Arlene tripped was a paint bucket, which dumped brown paint on Arlene, which Skipper noticed. After mentally face palming, he leaned over to speak to Rico while still keeping up the cute and cuddly act.

"Rico, why did you put brown paint into the bucket? Now we can't tell the two of them apart!"

"Uh…I 'unno." said Rico, shrugging.

Skipper sighed, thinking that this was going to get much tougher to deal with.

A few minutes later, Alice came up to the otter exhibit, leading a tour group. She started explaining about the arctic mink that just came in recently, with her back to the exhibit, when one of the guests spoke up.

"Uh, which one's the arctic mink?"

"Excuse me?" asked Alice, looking slightly perturbed at the interruption.

"Those two otters look pretty similar."

Confused, Alice turned around and finally saw the penguin's handiwork. Thankfully, though, the paint bucket was well hidden, and the paint splatter on the ground wasn't noticeable.

"What in the world?"

Alice immediately hopped over the barricade and lowered the plank, crossing over it to where the two otters were.

As she looked at the two of them, she finally noticed the paint on the ground and bent down to observe.

"Hmm…paint. Must be one of those vandals again. Don't worry, I'll get you cleaned up."

But she suddenly realized that she couldn't tell the two of them apart. Somehow Rico managed to find the exact shade of brown that Marlene was, and by sheer luck it covered only the parts where it was brown.

"Oh god… this isn't going to be as simple as I thought."

* * *

><p>After the zoo closed for the day, Marlene and Arlene were both taken to the animal care clinic so that they can figure out who was who. Unfortunately, there ended up being a lot of people there, so the penguins were unable to visit them.<p>

But once all of the humans cleared out having given up for the moment, the penguins took their chance, breaking into the room and flipping up to where the two otters were in cages.

"Skipper, what's going on? Why was there a bucket of paint set to drop on us?" asked one of the otters.

"Well, we were trying to engage in a little democratic sabotage, but Rico here messed things up royally."

Skipper punctuated that last sentence with a glare in Rico's direction, to which the psychotic penguin responded with a nervous chuckle.

"Anyway, it was supposed to only be between the four of us, but we were trying to get Marlene more popular with the humans so the zoo overlords don't ship her off to god knows where."

Both of the otters were furious after hearing Skipper's confession. Marlene wasn't happy that the penguins went behind her back even after she refused to go against Arlene, while Arlene's reason was pretty obvious.

As the two otters started chewing Skipper out (the commander firing back when he could), Kowalski suddenly cleared his throat, silencing the three arguing animals.

"Can I help you with something, Kowalski?" asked Skipper with a tone of annoyance in his voice.

"I think it would be better for us to quit arguing for the moment and try and figure out which of the otters is the real Marlene so we can get out of here before the humans come back."

"Good idea, Kowalski. Rico, give me a light."

Rico regurgitated a flashlight and handed it over to Skipper, who flipped it on and immediately pointed it at the two otters. The one on the left gave him a stern look, but the other one froze, looking nervously at Skipper.

"To make this quick, I'm going to give you one question and one question only. And this is something only someone who's been at the Central Park Zoo for a long time would know. Name me as many of the other animals in this zoo as you can. The one on the left can go first."

The one on the left began listing the names of the animals, almost making it look effortless. But when she got near the end, she stopped.

"Sorry, can't quite remember the last few."

"No problem, you did quite well."

Skipper turned to the otter on the right and asked her to do the same thing. She also began pretty well, but quickly began faltering.

"Um…Rhonda, Clemson, Savio…"

"Wait, why are you listing the animals from Hoboken?" asked Skipper, suddenly suspicious.

The otter froze, realizing that she's blown her cover.

"Hmm, it looks like we've found Arlene, and she's also a grade-A liar! She's not from Chicago. She's from Hoboken!" said Kowalski.

"Rico, on top of the cage!" said Skipper.

Rico hopped up on top of the cage, catching the flashlight as Skipper tossed it to him and shining it down on Arlene, making it look like an old-fashioned interrogation.

"Tell me what your plan was, Arlene. Does this have something to do with Dr. Blowhole?"

Finally realizing she wasn't going to be able to hide it anymore, Arlene dropped the act.

"Fine, you want to know the plan? Blowhole was planning on replacing the animals in your dumb zoo with animals from Hoboken. Then, once everyone's been replaced, they were going to converge on you four and finally eliminate you! But now that the cat's out of the bag, we're going to have to work overtime."

"Kind of a shame. I'd love to see the look on his face when he realizes his plan's been ruined." said Skipper nonchalantly.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Arlene.

* * *

><p>Arlene's question was answered a while later as she was quickly stuffed into a crate and shipped back off to Hoboken with a note attached to the box letting Blowhole know that they were aware of his plans.<p>

The evil dolphin did make a few more attempts to replace animals, but the penguins stopped them every time.

A few days after the last failed attempt, the penguins were lounging around after another day of performing when Marlene zipped over from her habitat, landing on the fake ice floe.

"Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize for not trusting you about that whole Arlene incident. I guess I was just happy to have a friend of my own species to have around."

"Don't worry about it, Marlene. We were happy to help you out." said Private.

"That is part of our job description. Always help anyone in need, even if it is Ringtail." said Skipper.

Rico nodded, agreeing with Skipper's assessment.

"Thanks you guys. Anyway, see you all later."

Marlene hopped back over the fence, happy that even if it wasn't another otter, she still had awesome friends.


	3. Winky (Private)

**Chapter 3- Winky (Private's Story)**

It was another normal day in New York City, and the penguins were off on a snack run, as they had just run out of stock this morning.

So as they reached Bailey's Snackatarium, the penguins grabbed the soda barrels that they use for storage and split up, both pairs hiding behind each of the barrels as they rolled inside. Once they reached the counter, Rico knocked out the cashier, and they rolled the barrels back into the store, filling them with whatever they could find.

The only one not collecting snacks was Private, as his attention was occupied by something interesting on one of the shelves.

Skipper looked up from where he was busy collecting snacks and found the young penguin standing there, his beak agape. Immediately, he walked over, intending to confront him about the delay.

"What's the hold up, Private? We don't exactly have all the time in the world here!"

This snapped Private out of his stupor, but instead of replying, he simply pointed his flipper at the top shelf. Skipper looked up, and what he saw was something he never thought he would see again.

"What in the world?"

On the shelf were five boxes of Peanut Butter Winkies, and Private was just about ready to climb up and grab them, when he was grabbed from behind by Skipper.

"Hold your horses, Private. I want to make sure that we're not walking into a trap. Kowalski, front and center, soldier!"

The analyst did as he was commanded, and rushed over to where Skipper and Private were, standing at attention.

"Go take a look at those Peanut Butter Winkies on the top shelf, and make sure there's nothing that's going to blow up in our face when we take them out of here."

"Peanut Butter Winkies? I'm quite positive that they closed the factory a few months ago."

"Well, those boxes on the top shelf seem to say otherwise. Now get moving, Kowalski!"

As Kowalski climbed his way up the shelf, one thought crossed his mind.

"I don't understand. Why is it that months after the factory closed, there are still boxes being sold?"

As if to answer Kowalski's question, the television near the counter suddenly flipped on as the clerk woke up, showing the news on screen. Ace news anchor Chuck Charles was just introducing himself when there was a breaking news alert.

"We have some breaking news today. Let's go live to the Wally Winky factory for the story."

The picture then changed to Chuck standing once again in front of the Wally Winky factory.

"This is Chuck Charles, here with some good news for fans of Peanut Butter Winkies and Marsh Meow-Meows. A few minutes ago, Wally Winky himself held a press conference announcing that the factory will be reopened and his products will be returning to stores, but only for a single day. When asked about the incredibly short timeframe, Wally said, quote, 'Because I like messing with people's heads, and limiting production to one day will really get them going.' A strange answer, but nothing new from the eccentric owner. This is Chuck Charles, reporting live from the Winky Factory. Back to you in the studio."

As the picture returned to Chuck in the studio, Private turned towards Skipper.

"I don't understand, Skippah. Why would he only open the factory for one day?"

"What do you expect? The man's crazy. He barely even comes out of the factory!" said Skipper.

Skipper paused for a few seconds, before looking up at the top shelf where the Winkies were.

"Kowalski, what's the status on the Winkies? We're running out of time!"

Kowalski looked out from behind the boxes.

"I've performed all of the tests that I could think of. There's no sign of any tampering with these boxes."

"Well then, what are you waiting for? Push them down here so we can get out of here!"

Kowalski was just about to do that when the front doors suddenly slammed open, and a parade of footfalls that felt almost like an earthquake started coming closer to their position.

"We've got company! Everyone move!" yelled Skipper over the commotion.

Private, Rico and Skipper cleared out of the aisle as quickly as they could while pushing the soda barrels along with them. Kowalski, meanwhile, couldn't go anywhere, so he quickly looked around the shelf he was on and found a dark corner, almost flinging his tiny body into the corner so that he could hide from the ensuing rush.

It was chaos for the next few seconds as a large crowd of people ran back to the candy aisle, cleared out all of the Winky products and immediately left. As soon as the crowd left, the penguins returned to the aisle, with Kowalski breathing heavily and Private looking at the empty shelves in disappointment.

"What are we going to do now, Skippah? This is our only chance to stock up on Winkies before they're gone forever, for real this time!"

"I think we'd better go with the sure thing, Private. Kowalski, options!"

Kowalski had only just rejoined the rest of the team from climbing down the shelf, but he immediately pulled out his notebook and furiously scribbled some pictures.

"We could go to the factory again. No humans that aren't employed by the factory are allowed in, so we can easily sneak in and grab some boxes."

"Oh no. That is not happening, Kowalski. Don't you remember Rico nearly eating you?"

Kowalski gave an involuntary shiver while Rico chuckled nervously.

"I was hoping never to be reminded of that. Disgusting."

Kowalski fell silent for a few seconds as he tried to forget about that ordeal, before Skipper cleared his throat and signaled for him to continue.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Skipper. The only other reasonable option we have is to go to some other stores and hope that they haven't been cleared out already."

"But there's no telling if all of the stores in the city haven't been cleared out already!" said Private, as he started to panic. Thankfully, Skipper was there to slap him and calm him down.

"Thanks, Skippah. I needed that."

"No problem, Private. Anyway, we're not going to find out if there's any left just standing here. Let's move out!"

The penguins pushed the barrels up to the counter.

"Rico, you know what to do." said Skipper.

Rico did as he was asked, regurgitating a smoke bomb and quickly setting down the payment for their snacks. But before he could return to the rest of the team, his eyes caught something pink and marshmallowy behind the counter.

"Ooohhh…Meow Meow…"

Thankfully, the penguins invested in smoke bombs that lasted longer than before, so the weapons expert had some time to grab the candy and uppercut the clerk, knocking him out once again so he wouldn't notice them leaving.

As Rico made his way back to the team, he quickly snuck the package of Marsh Meow-Meows into one of the barrels and joined the rest of the penguins as they pushed them out the door.

* * *

><p>After returning to the zoo to drop off their haul for the day, the penguins jumped into the car and drove off looking for any stores that had Winkies left.<p>

Unfortunately, they had no luck, as either they were already gone or they were scooped up by a crowd of people not long after they arrive.

The constant failure was starting to wear on Skipper's nerves, so after giving up and returning to the zoo, Private decided that he needed to do something to cheer Skipper up.

However, not even a second after they returned to their HQ, Skipper sat down at the table and began scribbling some drawings on some paper that was near.

"Nobody bother me. I'm going to try and think of some other plans that we can use to get those Winkies."

Kowalski opened his beak, intending to ask why he's suddenly decided to go with making up plans on his own, but Skipper silenced him with a glare before returning to his work.

An hour passed, as Rico, Private and Kowalski attempted to relax and watch television, but their worry over Skipper who still hasn't come up with an alternative plan, combined with the news report that was on recently letting the public know that the Winky factory would close for good in three hours prevented them from being able to completely enjoy it.

Having had enough, Private decided to try and convince Skipper to go for their original plan of going to the factory, so he got up from his seat and was about to walk over to give Skipper a piece of his mind when he was stopped by a flipper on the shoulder from Kowalski.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Private? Skipper doesn't like to be bothered when he's working like that."

"Yeah I'm sure, K'walski! We're not getting anywhere just letting Skippah do his own thing. Besides, you heard what Chuck Charles said. There's only three hours left before the factory closes for good!"

Kowalski sighed before relenting and letting Private go. The young penguin walked over to where his commanding officer was angrily crumbling up yet another unusable plan and throwing it over his shoulder, where it ended up hitting Private on the head before landing on the floor.

"Permission to make a suggestion, Skippah?"

"Denied, Private. Now please leave me alone. I can't think when I'm being bothered."

Private was about to turn around and head back to the TV, but he quickly changed his mind, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere by being timid.

"I'm sorry for being out of line, Skippah, but I think you really need to hear this!"

Skipper sighed in defeat before looking up at the young penguin.

"Make it quick, Private."

"Oh! Um…why don't we try going to the factory to find some Winkies? Besides, it's not like we have much of a choice at this point."

"I thought I made it perfectly clear that the factory was out of the question. Isn't that right, Kowalski?" said Skipper.

"Crystal, sir." said Kowalski from where he was sitting.

Private quickly racked his brain trying to come up with something to convince Skipper to try the factory. Soon enough, something came to him.

"But Skippah, the only reason our first trip to the factory failed was because I wasn't ready to lead. I'm sure that with you in charge, we'll get some Winkies no problem!"

Skipper opened his beak to counter, but realized that he had nothing.

"You're right, Private. I forgot about that part."

"So are we going to the factory?"

"Yes we are, Private. Yes we are."

Skipper turned towards Kowalski and Rico, who were still plopped in front of the television.

"Kowalski! Rico! We're headed out to the Winky factory! Let's move! Double time!"

The two penguins immediately hopped up to their feet and saluted before climbing up the ladder and going through the hatch, Private and Skipper following close behind them.

* * *

><p>With Rico's manic driving, they managed to make it to the Winky factory with an hour to spare. Rico parked the car in a bush across the street so that no one would see it, before the penguins hopped out and slid over to the front door, hiding against the wall next to them. Skipper then opened the door, and the other three penguins slid in with the leader following behind them.<p>

When they finally got inside the factory, they were surprised to find that all of the machines were still running despite there being only an hour left before shutdown. It was almost like the factory never closed, if you leave out the presence of spider webs and other things that show the factory's disuse.

As the penguins made their way through the factory in search of the Winky stash, Rico suddenly veered off to the side, having noticed the production line for the Marsh Meow-Meows. Thankfully, Skipper noticed the crazed penguin walking off and stopped the search.

"Where are you going, soldier? We're on a time limit!"

But when he saw Rico's planned destination, his quickly shouted out his orders to the other two penguins.

"Kowalski! Private! Restrain him before he gets to the Marsh Meow-Meows!"

The two of them immediately leapt into action, sliding over to where Rico was and tackling him to the ground. But Rico wasn't going to go down without a fight if it meant getting more than just the package he swiped from the Snackatarium.

So, he tried his best to throw off Kowalski and Private, but their combined weight was too much for even him, so all he could do was desperately crawl towards the production line.

Unfortunately for him, Skipper had reached the three of them by that point, and he hogtied Rico with a licorice string.

"Sorry, Rico, but I can't risk the mission being jeopardized by your insatiable love for Marsh Meow-Meows."

The weapons expert grumbled, but he knew that he still had the package back at the zoo that somehow none of the other penguins found out about, so not all was lost.

"Alright, men, let's keep moving. Kowalski, you're bringing along Rico."

Kowalski opened his beak to protest getting stuck with Rico duty again, but decided against it, knowing arguing was pretty pointless. So he simply sighed and grabbed Rico, dragging the hefty penguin behind him.

* * *

><p>Shockingly, outside of one incident where Rico broke out of his restraints and tried to go back for the Marsh Meow-Meows, the rest of the search for the Winkies went pretty smoothly. The penguins finally managed to find a large pallet full of boxes of Winkies in the shipping department.<p>

"Wow, the last shipment of Winkies ever made! I can't believe that we've finally found some!" said Private giddily.

"Settle down, Private. We just need to worry about how we're going to get these out of here and back to the zoo. Any ideas, Kowalski?"

"We could fly these out of here. We'd just need a helicopter and a cable to lift all of these."

"And how much would that cost us?" asked Skipper, eyebrow raised.

"Around…three million dollars."

"Let's try going for something a little more in our price range this time, Kowalski."

The analyst thought for a moment before giving out his next idea.

"I've spotted a few trucks while we were walking through the factory. We could steal one of them and drive the Winkies back to the zoo."

Skipper considered the possibility for a second before responding.

"Not the most subtle way to transport these, but I suppose that's the best way we've got. Does anyone know how to drive a stick shift?"

None of the penguins raised their flippers.

"I guess this means we're just going to have to wing it, then."

Before Skipper could give his next orders, the pallet of Winkies was suddenly lifted off of the ground.

"Wait, where's it going?" asked Private.

"Doesn't matter. Just follow that forklift!" said Skipper.

The penguins immediately dropped on to their bellies and gave chase. However, the forklift began pulling away, reaching one of the trucks and placing the Winkies inside.

Knowing that they weren't going to catch up in time, Skipper frantically looked around the area for any way they could prevent the truck from leaving. His eyes eventually landed on a control booth and he turned towards Kowalski.

"Kowalski, head for that control booth and find anything that can prevent that truck from leaving, pronto!"

"Right away, Skipper!"

Kowalski veered off towards the control booth as the other penguins continued to try to catch up with the truck.

Once the analyst entered the booth, he hopped up on to the control panel and quickly looked around all of the buttons, trying to find what he was looking for. However, the lack of any words on the buttons made it pretty much impossible to tell which was which, so he slammed his flipper on the first button he saw and hoped for the best.

Nothing happened for the first few seconds after Kowalski hit the button, but suddenly a loud siren started blaring around the factory and a voice from the speakers said something that made the analyst's blood run cold.

"Five minutes until self-destruction. Please evacuate the building as quickly as possible. Five minutes until self-destruction."

Not knowing what to do, Kowalski went with the first thing that came to his mind, screaming like a little girl and running away. But before he could get out of the control booth, he was met with an angry Skipper.

"Kowalski, what happened? I thought I told you to stop the truck, not blow the whole building up!"

"I don't know! None of the buttons said what they did!"

"Now we're never going to catch that truck!" said Private, disappointed.

"Truck! Truck!" said Rico, frantically pointing towards the truck, which was miraculously still there with the front door wide open. Most likely the driver had already evacuated.

"It's still there! Come on, you guys, let's go get that truck!" said Private.

"There's no time, Private! We'll be blown to smithereens!" said Kowalski.

"But…the Winkies!"

Private considered going for the truck, but he soon realized that he didn't want to throw his life away just for Winkies. So he turned back towards the rest of the team, his head drooped.

"Let's go, you guys."

"Alright, men, let's move! Double time!" said Skipper.

Thankfully, the shutter door the truck was about to head out of was still open, so the penguins slid their way out and to a safe distance before the factory finally exploded.

"Yay, kaboom!" said Rico, laughing giddily as he took in the destruction and mayhem.

The rest of the penguins weren't so enthusiastic about the factory blowing up, especially Private, who took it the hardest. Skipper walked up to the young penguin and placed a flipper around his shoulders, trying to cheer him up.

"I'm sure they all made it out okay, Private. There's no doubt that one of these days they'll rebuild and maybe they might start making those Peanut Butter Winkies again."

"Really? You think so?"

"Absolutely, Private. Now let's head home."

As the penguins began walking back to the car, one question came to Private's mind.

"Hey Skippah, why would a guy like Wally Winky need a self-destruct button for a candy factory?"

"Must be another one of his crazy fantasies, I guess."

Once Skipper completed that sentence, he suddenly noticed a small dot coming from the sky and rapidly growing bigger, heading straight for the penguins.

"Look out!"

Without questions, the four penguins dived out of the way of the projectile, narrowly missing getting hit by it. Private was the first one to get up and take a look at what the projectile was, and what he saw made his face light up in joy.

It was a box of Peanut Butter Winkies. The cardboard box was smoldering from the fire, but the Winkies themselves look almost good as new, outside of being slightly melted.

"Wow, how did this survive the explosion?"

Rather than wait for an answer, Private immediately grabbed one of the chocolates and opened the wrapper, only for it to be slapped away by Kowalski. Ignoring the glare Private gave him, Kowalski explained why he did that.

"We can't eat these now, Private. We need to find out how these Winkies managed to survive being in an intense heat like the factory was in. Imagine the kind of technology we can create with this breakthrough!"

Private was disappointed to not get to eat any of the Winkies, but he decided he could let it go if it was for the good of the team.

Later, once the penguins returned to the zoo, and Kowalski went into his lab to perform experiments on the Winkies, the rest of the penguins found out on a news report that thankfully there were no casualties in the explosion, which relieved a lot of the pressure that Private was feeling at that point.

So, as they continued watching TV, Private couldn't help a warm fuzzy feeling from appearing in his chest, knowing that he's not only got a team, but three great friends to be with him, and he was alright with that.


	4. Party (Julien)

I'm getting really sick of dealing with my laziness, so I've decided that I probably should make some changes. Now, I doubt that you guys would know who Neassa is, considering I've only heard about her from the Sly Cooper archive, but she's adopted a policy of only posting the story once she's finished it. I'm not going to force you to wait for that long, though. All of my stories except one are open-ended, so it would be kind of pointless. What I'm actually going to do is only post new chapters once I have a decent amount of chapters written (probably a week's worth of updates, maybe more). This'll start once I update my Sly Cooper story and one of my Regular Show stories, so that everyone knows about it.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4 – Party (Julien's Story)<strong>

It was another normal day at the zoo. It was just past closing time, and the animals were resting after completing another long day of entertaining the guests.

Inside the lemur habitat, Julien was sprawled over his throne, trying his best to find a comfortable position to stay in, while Maurice and Mort were busy fanning him with leaves.

"Ugh, I am so bored! Maurice! Entertain your king!"

Maurice perked up, having fallen into a lull from the constant fanning, but he suddenly realized he had no idea what he could do to entertain someone like King Julien.

"Right away, your majesty!"

Unable to come up with something in the small amount of time he had, he turned towards Mort.

"Hey Mort, mind keeping Julien busy while I think of something?"

"Oohh, I like being a distraction!" said Mort.

The tiny mouse lemur ran up in front of the throne and began dancing and doing random stunts. It didn't really peak Julien's interest, but it did keep his attention, which enabled Maurice to head off to a corner of the habitat where he could think freely.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for him to come up with something, as Julien was beginning to lose interest in what Mort was doing and he finally noticed his missing adviser.

"Maurice! Where are you? I seem to remember asking you to be de king's entertainer, and you are not entertaining me!"

Maurice quickly rushed back in front of Julien's throne and began speaking.

"Sorry, your majesty. But I've actually come up with a great idea. Why don't we throw a party once Alice leaves and invite the whole zoo?"

"No, dat's terrible. That is the worst idea I ever heard." said Julien.

Maurice sighed, getting ready to dance when suddenly, Julien jumped up into a standing position.

"But wait! I think I have just gotten a great idea! I'll throw a dance party, and we'll invite the whole zoo!"

Julien hopped off of his throne and walked over to Maurice, wrapping an arm around the aye aye's shoulders.

"Man, Maurice, what will I tink of next? Anyway, I need you and Mort to go around de zoo and tell all of de animals about my kickin' party. Can you do that for your king?"

Maurice was slightly miffed about Julien taking the credit for his idea, but he knew it would be worthless to argue, so he agreed. Mort, meanwhile, was completely oblivious to everything, so it wasn't an issue to get him to agree.

"Dat is wonderful! Now shoo! Your king has to get ready to shake de royal booty all night long!"

* * *

><p>Over the next two hours, Maurice and Mort went around the park, inviting everyone they ran into to Julien's big dance party. Some of the animals agreed to go, like Marlene, Roger, Phil and Mason as a few examples, but there were a few that Maurice and Mort were unable to convince.<p>

Leonard's fear of pretty much everyone in the park prevented him from coming, while Joey's bad attitude prevented the two of them from being able to convince him to go. As for Barry and some of the other bad tempered animals in the zoo, they never really bothered trying, especially with Barry, as they knew better than to have a frog with poisonous skin out in public.

Eventually, Maurice and Mort ended up at the penguin habitat, having for some reason decided to head there last. They hopped over the fence separating the habitat from the rest of the zoo and climbed down the hatch, Maurice deciding to skip the pleasantries after a long day of walking around the zoo.

As Maurice and Mort reached the bottom of the ladder into the penguin's HQ, they found that Private and Rico were busy watching TV, while Kowalski and Skipper were standing over by the table, but Skipper wasn't there for long, as he noticed the presence of the two lemurs and he quickly made his way over to them.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion, lemurs? I don't recall ever saying you two or Ringtail were allowed down here."

Maurice was about to answer Skipper's question when the commander suddenly yawned loudly. It was then that Maurice noticed the bleary-eyed look on Skipper's face, and he turned towards Kowalski.

"What's up with him? He looks like he hasn't had sleep in a while!"

"Well, Skipper was-"

Kowalski was suddenly cut off by Skipper, who rushed over and closed his beak to prevent him from talking. Through the analyst's muffled protests, Skipper explained himself.

"The details are classified, Kowalski, remember?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, Skipper. That was an accident that will never happen again." said Kowalski.

"See to it that it doesn't. All I will say is that I was up late dealing with some important business. Now, please explain what you're still doing here before I kick you out myself."

Maurice was about to explain until Mort suddenly cut him off.

"King Julien is having a party, and you are all invited!"

Both Rico and Private perked up upon hearing this and stood up, making their way over to the rest of the group.

"Ooh, that sounds like great fun! What do you think, Rico?" asked Private.

"Uh-huh. Fun!"

"Negatory, compadres! We've got an early day ahead of us tomorrow, and I can't have all of you being as tired as I am right now." said Skipper.

"Oh come on, Skippah! We'll be back before lights out, promise! Right, Rico?"

The weapons expert nodded vigorously, his tongue lolling out of the side of his beak.

Skipper still didn't budge, but a dose of the puppy eyes from Private forced him to relent.

"Alright, I suppose having you guys out of the HQ would help me catch up on some sleep. I want you guys back by lights out, alright? No exceptions!"

"Aye, Skippah!"

Both Private and Rico saluted before heading topside, with Maurice and Mort following behind them. Meanwhile, Kowalski began heading towards his lab.

"I suppose I'll spend some time in the lab now that those two are gone. Those jetpacks aren't going to fix themselves."

But before Kowalski could go any further, he found his flipper being grabbed by the commander, preventing him from moving.

"Not happening, Kowalski. You're going with them, and that's final!"

Skipper grabbed Kowalski and began pushing him towards the hatch.

"B-but Skipper! The jetpacks!"

"You can deal with them later. Right now, I need some quiet so I can actually sleep, and the noise you make in that lab isn't going to help matters."

Kowalski continued to protest, but Skipper decided to ignore them, pushing the analyst out of the hatch and closing the fishbowl behind him.

Defeated, Kowalski sighed before heading off towards the lemur habitat, figuring he might as well give the whole socializing thing a shot.

* * *

><p>The party was already in full swing, and Julien, Mort and Maurice were already shaking it like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately, they were the only ones actually dancing, and not only was everyone else not dancing, they weren't even watching the three of them, preferring instead to socialize with each other.<p>

King Julien stopped dancing and walked off of the dance floor, with Maurice following close behind. Mort, meanwhile, continued to dance, not having noticed the fact that Maurice and Julien weren't next to him.

"I cannot believe dis, Maurice! When I came up with dis idea for de party, I expected to see everyone coming to watch me shake de royal booty! But all they are doing is talking! That is boring!"

"Well, the party just started, your Majesty! I'm sure once we really get going, everyone else will start getting into it!"

Julien really wanted to poke some holes into Maurice's reasoning so that he was still right, but he begrudgingly admitted that he wasn't as smart as someone like Kowalski, so he wouldn't really be able to. Speaking of…

"Ah, it is de smarty penguin! Welcome to de party!"

Kowalski was standing awkwardly next to the habitat's fence, not knowing what to do.

"Uh…hello, Julien."

"Do not just be standing there, my friend! Come in and have some fun!"

Kowalski began nervously making his way towards the crowd, but not before Julien spoke up once again.

"Eh, where is de bossy penguin? I remember seeing de nice-y penguin and de crazy penguin, but not de bossy one."

"Oh, uh…Skipper didn't want to come. He said he needed to get some sleep."

"That is a shame. De bossy penguin is missing out on a great party, though!"

Julien turned towards Maurice, who by now was heading off to rejoin the party.

"Maurice! Remind me to find ways to get de bossy penguin to come to more of my parties!"

Maurice was only half-listening to what Julien was saying, but he nodded his head to show that he understood.

Once Kowalski figured that Julien was probably done asking him questions, he began slipping his way through the large crowd, hoping to find Private and Rico.

* * *

><p>Back at the Penguin HQ, Skipper was busy trying to get some sleep, but unfortunately there was pretty much zero chance of that happening, what with the loud music and chatter coming from the party.<p>

Skipper began tossing and turning, hoping that one of the positions he was in would help lessen some of the noise that was going on, but nothing worked in the slightest.

Now getting angry, the commander got up out of his bed and made his way over to the party to hopefully convince Julien to turn down the noise, even if meant having to do something drastic.

Skipper arrived at the party a couple of minutes later and immediately winced once he was assaulted with the sheer volume of the music. Not wanting to be in the party longer than he wanted to, he set off to find Julien and give him a piece of his mind.

It didn't take too long for him to find the lemur, as him, Maurice and Mort were back on the dance floor, along with a few other guests who decided to join in.

Skipper immediately went over to the dance floor and grabbed Julien by the wrist, dragging him off against the lemur king's protests.

"What is de meaning of this? I will have you exiled for not allowing de king to shake his royal booty!"

Skipper didn't reply, instead continuing to drag Julien between the lemur and penguin habitat before spinning him around to face him and glaring.

"Oh, it is de bossy penguin! I did-"

Whatever Julien's next words were was cut off, as Skipper immediately closed the lemur's mouth with his flipper and brought his head forward so that the two of them were eye to eye.

"Listen here, Ringtail. I've been trying to sleep for the past two hours. But your incessant loud music doesn't let me do that. So here's the plan. You're going to turn that music waaaayyyy down, and make sure not one of those guests . Because the next time I have to come here, I'm bringing a bat, and you're going to have a lot of destroyed equipment. And I mean a lot! You got me!?"

Unable to reply due to Skipper holding his mouth closed, Julien nodded.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to bed."

Skipper removed his flipper from Julien's mouth and made his way back over to the penguin habitat, dropping down the hatch and closing the fishbowl behind him.

As much as Julien didn't really want to believe it, he knew that Skipper would probably follow through on his threat to destroy all of his equipment, so he made his way back into the party and towards the tape player, grabbing the volume knob and turning it way down.

Maurice and Mort were once again the only ones dancing, so they were really the only ones to notice the lowered volume. As for the rest of the animals, they were absorbed in socializing, so the sudden lack of volume didn't really affect them outside of a look at the tape player to see what was going on.

"What's up, your Majesty? I've never seen you actually turn down the music like that." asked Maurice.

Julien sighed before explaining about Skipper's threat.

"I do not like destruction!" said Mort.

"Look, all we have to do is get everyone to quiet down some, and then everything will be good." said Maurice.

"Why yes! It is very easy to get the people to be quieting down!" said Julien.

Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. With the sheer number of animals present at the party, the noise level from their talking prevented the three lemurs from being heard.

"Ugh, what are we going to be doing now? No one can hear my kingly voice telling them to be shutting up now!"

"Well, what about a megaphone? I'm sure we can get one from Rico." said Maurice.

"That is a great idea! I do not know why I did not think of it earlier. Let us go find de crazy penguin."

Maurice sighed before him and Mort followed the lemur king towards where the three penguins were standing.

"Oh, hello Julien! Nice party you have going on here!" said Private as the three lemurs walked up.

Julien gave a half-hearted thank you to Private before turning towards Rico.

"Excuse me, crazy penguin. Your king wishes to make with the talking, but I cannot be heard over the loudness. Do you have a talking loudly device that your king may use so that he can be heard by everyone?"

Rico stared at Julien in confusion, forcing Kowalski to walk over and explain what Julien was talking about into the weapon expert's ear hole.

"Okay!"

Rico regurgitated a megaphone and handed it over to Julien, who gingerly grabbed it, trying not to touch some of the spit that Rico got on it.

Julien hopped on to the bar table and held the megaphone up to his mouth to begin speaking, but when he pressed the button, there was a massive amount of feedback, releasing a loud screeching noise which did end up quieting the crowd, but it also ended up summoning Skipper, who arrived a minute or so later still fuming.

"Uh…hello, bossy penguin." said Julien, nervously waving at the angry penguin commander.

Instead of replying, Skipper held out a flipper in Rico's direction.

"Rico, baseball bat."

Rico ended up regurgitating a chainsaw and handed it to Skipper.

"A chainsaw would work too, but I think a baseball bat would send a better message."

Rico took a few seconds, but he finally understood what Skipper was getting at and regurgitated a baseball bat, which landed in Skipper's hand, as the commander gave the chainsaw back to Rico.

At first, Rico thought that getting the chainsaw back meant he could go wild, but Skipper shook his head, signaling that the chainsaw wouldn't be needed. Disappointed, Rico swallowed the chainsaw, returning it to its original storage.

By this point, Julien has already rushed over and placed his body in front of the tape player as a shield, but Skipper was having none of it, roughly pushing the lemur king aside and repeatedly swinging the bat into the tape player, smashing it into pieces and breaking the bat in the process.

"Everybody go home, now! Party's over!" yelled Skipper over the crowd.

Not wanting to agitate him even further, the crowd immediately began dispersing, heading back to their respective habitats to sleep.

As for Rico, Private, and Kowalski, they began making their way back to the penguin HQ, but not before Skipper stopped them in their tracks.

"You three are going to be putting in some extra work tomorrow during morning exercise. That's your punishment for not following orders and staying out past lights out."

The three of them groaned, but didn't argue, heading back to the hideout with Skipper following close behind.

As for Julien, he was too busy mourning the loss of his favorite tape player. Maurice walked up and placed a paw on his shoulder, attempting to console the grieving king.

"Don't worry, your Majesty. I'm sure we'll find some way to replace that tape deck."

"I know. But it is not going to be de same."

Unable to think of anything else to say, Maurice resorted to patting King Julien on the shoulder.

As for Mort, he was completely oblivious to what was going on around him, dancing the night away without a care in the world.

* * *

><p><strong>Quick note before I go. I'm still getting used to writing in King Julien's vernacular, so I apologize if it's not exactly the way you thought it would be.<strong>


	5. Switch (Kowalski)

I'm holding off one more update until I enact my new rule, because I really, really want to do this one. Morals & Quandaries will definitely be next on my list, so don't worry about that. Anyway, this idea came from fuwa2-kyara on deviantART and the picture she made entitled PoM: Not My Shoes. I'm not going to waste words describing it. I think you guys should probably go look at it. It's good. Also, I did send a note to her asking if it was okay to do this, but she hasn't replied at the time of this writing, so if she doesn't want this up, I'll replace this with something else.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5 – Switch (Kowalski's Story)<strong>

It was another beautiful day at the zoo, and the penguins have just completed morning exercises. As they were getting ready for another day of entertaining the humans, Kowalski decided to take a few minutes to finish up an experiment he was working on.

After the incident at the Winky factory, Kowalski was running as many tests as he could think of to determine what prevented the box of Peanut Butter Winkies that they got their hands on from being incinerated from the factory's explosion.

However, nothing has worked. This hasn't stopped the analyst from trying, though.

At this point, Kowalski was starting to run out of things to use to test on the Winkies, so he decided to try out some of the chemicals that he has only discovered recently and haven't given a name to yet.

After some careful consideration, he grabbed a tube of a green-colored liquid and walked over to the remaining Winkies. He removed the cork, holding his breath to avoid breathing in the fumes as he slowly began to tip the test tube over to drip the chemical on to the Winky, when a loud, commanding voice suddenly interrupted him.

"Kowalski, we've got twenty seconds to get up top before the zoo opens! Let's move, soldier!" said Skipper.

Panicking, Kowalski hastily slapped the cork back on the tube and placed it back into its original spot, before running off to join the rest of the team. However, Kowalski failed to completely seal the tube, which allowed the fumes to seep out from the tube and slowly spread throughout the lab, and eventually the rest of the HQ.

And as the penguins returned to the HQ after the zoo closed, none of the penguins noticed that they were all breathing in an unknown, potentially dangerous gas. It wasn't lethal, thankfully, so they went to bed just like they normally do, unaware that something strange was about to happen.

* * *

><p>The penguins woke up the next day early in the morning as they always do. It was a holiday, so the zoo was closed, and the animals were given the day off.<p>

Normally, when the zoo was closed, Skipper saved morning exercises for a little later in the morning, so Kowalski decided to spend some more time working on the Winky experiment. As he walked toward the lab in a haze, he failed to notice the fact that everything that was around him looked higher than usual.

Once he reached the lab, he gave himself a couple of slaps to wake up so that he could focus fully on the task at hand. However, once he was completely awake, he finally realized that everything in the lab was higher up than he remembered.

At first, he thought that one of the other guys must have played a prank on him and moved some of the stuff to where he couldn't reach it, but then he realized the most likely candidates, being Rico and Private, probably would have ended up spilling some of the supplies on the floor, and he didn't see any broken glass or chemical spills around.

"Strange. If the others didn't move my supplies around, then why do I feel so short?" he thought to himself.

As if to answer his question, Kowalski turned around and caught himself reflected in one of the metal tables. And what he saw made his beak drop open in horror.

He still felt like Kowalski inside, but outside he looked exactly like Rico, down to the Mohawk on his head and the telltale scar on the side of his beak.

He started panicking and grabbed his notebook, trying to frantically write something down that would hopefully help him figure out what was going on, when he heard footsteps coming revealing Skipper, as well as his own body moving by itself, which made him freak out even more, especially once he heard the voice coming out of it.

"K'walski, what's going on? Why are Rico and I suddenly in each other's bodies?" asked Private.

"I have no idea, Private. I am curious, though. How did you know it was me when all you see is Rico in front of you?"

Private in Kowalski's body nervously scratched at the back of his neck with a flipper before responding.

"Lucky guess, I suppose. Rico and I figured out we were in these bodies a few minutes ago, and I saw my body as we were on our way here. I assumed it was probably Skippah due to the way he was acting."

"What do you mean by acting?"

"Well, I didn't really get a good look at him, since Rico and I were on our way here, but Skippah seemed like he had something on his mind."

As soon as Private finished, the three of them heard another set of footsteps coming their way, before the door to the lab was roughly pushed open, revealing Private with an angry look on his face.

"Kowalski! Explain yourself, soldier!"

The actual Kowalski yelled in surprise, shielding himself with his notebook, but Skipper ended up going for Private in Kowalski's body, jamming a flipper into his chest.

"What is the meaning of this? What did you do to me?"

Confused, Private looked back at Skipper.

"Skippah, I'm Private! Honest!"

Skipper stared at Private for a moment, unsure of whether to believe him.

"Then who's Kowalski?"

Actual Kowalski began nervously shuffling off, but he was stopped in his tracks when Private pointed at him, and Skipper angrily glared at him. Kowalski turned to face Skipper before turning his head to speak to Private.

"Psh! What are you saying, Private? I'm- uhh, I mean…"

Realizing that he was blowing his cover, he adopted a dumb look on his face and tried to speak like Rico would.

"Duh…I'm not Kowalski!"

Needless to say, his impression was terrible.

"Nice try, but you're not fooling anyone. Now I want answers!" said Skipper.

Caught, Kowalski returned to his normal voice and mannerisms.

"I honestly couldn't begin to guess what happened, Skipper. Either I've suddenly begun sleep experimenting, or I might have been a little lax on securing something in my lab."

"I knew it! I had a feeling Blowhole had something to do with this. He must have sent one of his lobsters in to steal one of your chemical doohickeys and released it into the air, causing us to switch bodies!" said Skipper.

"Well, uh…I suppose that is a possibility as well, but I think it's more likely to be something I did."

Skipper was slightly disappointed that the nefarious dolphin wasn't involved, but he perked back up once he realized he needed to take charge to make sure this mess gets fixed.

"Alright team, spread out! I want a thorough search of the lab and everywhere in the HQ. We're not going to rest until we find out what the heck happened."

The team split up to begin their search, except for Rico, who realized that now that he was in Skipper's body, he had no one who could tell him when he could or couldn't blow anything up. A devious smile appeared on his beak before he adopted an authoritative stance, acting like he was Skipper.

"Wico, woo can bow famthin' ap!"

Rico returned to his normal self, making it look like he was having a conversation with himself.

"Ookae!"

Rico began running off, his flippers in the air.

"Eyaaay!"

However, before he could get away to do his dirty work, Skipper was there to grab his flipper and hold him back.

"You stop right there…"

Rico gave him a dirty look, but joined the search without an argument.

* * *

><p>The search didn't take long, as Kowalski looked at the container of unnamed chemicals and noticed the poorly sealed cap on the one he used yesterday.<p>

"I think I've found the offending object, gentlemen."

As the other penguins joined Kowalski, he began explaining what happened.

"You see, I was working yesterday on that box of Peanut Butter Winkies we got from the factory, and I figured why not try one of the new chemicals and see what happens? When Skipper called for me due to the zoo opening for the day, I must have not completely sealed the tube in my rush to get topside. Most of the chemicals I have in this container give off fumes when not sealed, which is why I make sure that every time I'm done with them, they're sealed tight."

"So, from what I understand, the fumes from the chemical managed to spread through the HQ and we ended up breathing it in, which is what made us switch bodies. But how did we not notice it last night?" asked Private.

"Some of the gases don't give off an odor or color, so I'm guessing the one we breathed in was one of them."

"So, what are we going to do now, K'walski? I don't want to spend my life inside your body!" said Private.

"'Walski, opshins!" said Rico.

"Hey, that's my line!" said Skipper.

Almost as if by instinct, Kowalski pulled out his notebook.

"Our only real option is for me to create an antidote. The only problem is that I have only a vague idea of what the chemical consists of, so I'm going to have to do some more tests."

Without missing a beat, Kowalski put away his notebook and began shoving the rest of the penguins out the door, which was much easier with Rico's bulk.

"I just need all of you to leave me alone for a while. The silence helps me think, and that means we might get our answer quicker."

Skipper opened his beak to retort, but he was met with the lab door slamming shut in his face. Grumbling, he joined Private and Rico at the TV. The three of them nervously glanced at each other every so often, knowing that in the two out of the three cases, the penguins were staring at their own bodies.

* * *

><p>The silence in the Penguin HQ was palpable, as nobody said a word to each other, anxiously awaiting news from Kowalski. Then again, boredom was also starting to set in as well, considering Kowalski was taking forever.<p>

Finally, after an hour of nothing, the lab door popped open to reveal Kowalski covered in soot, yet gleeful as ever knowing that he finally had a breakthrough.

As the three of them looked back at the triumphant Kowalski, Private couldn't help but giggle at the way Kowalski's expression looked coming from Rico's face. This earned him a dirty look from the analyst, but he immediately went back to smiling.

"So? What did you find?" asked Skipper when Kowalski didn't immediately start talking.

"Well, I'm not really going to go into detail, considering we'd be here all day. Do you guys happen to remember that one time we switched Rico's mind with Roger's?"

The other three penguins nodded.

"Well, it turns out the chemical is actually pretty similar to a chemical I used in that device I put together. However, instead of switching minds, it switches consciences. Honestly, it seems kind of redundant, but what can you do?"

"Did you find an antidote, K'walski?" asked Private.

"Why yes, I did. The only problem is that I'm missing a few of the components for the mixture. We're going to have to go into the city to get them."

"Fair enough. Let's not waste any time, men. Commence Operation: Body Switcher!" said Skipper.

* * *

><p>After the penguins made their way out of their habitat, they were about to head towards their car, when Private noticed something going on in the lemur habitat. He quickly walked up to Skipper and tapped him on the shoulder, which admittedly felt odd considering it was his own shoulder he was touching.<p>

"What is it, Private? We're on a mission here!"

"Um…Skippah, doesn't it look like there's something…strange going on with the lemurs?"

"What's your point? Ringtail's always been weird."

Instead of replying, Private pointed towards the lemur habitat. Kowalski and Rico joined the rest of the team, and Kowalski vocalized what they were all thinking.

"Einstein's undies! Not them, too!"

The lemurs were all standing next to each other, except for Julien, who was busy cuddling his own foot. Meanwhile, Maurice was busy yelling at Mort, while the mouse lemur had an annoyed look on his face.

Skipper immediately reacted, reaching his flipper out to cover Private's eyes from the scene in front of them, but considering Private was now much taller than him, his flipper only managed to hit Private's stomach with a soft thwap. Undeterred, Skipper turned his head towards the young penguin.

"Cover your eyes, Private."

Private did as he was asked and covered his eyes, staying behind as the rest of the team walked up to the lemur habitat. Skipper yelled out to get the lemur's attention.

"Hey Ringtail! What in Sam Hill is going on?"

Julien, who was in Maurice's body, looked up and immediately shrunk back, as he was still a little nervous being around Skipper after the party incident. This forced Maurice, who was in Mort's body, to explain what was going on.

"Well, you see, we needed some sugar for our smoothies, and Julien suggested getting some from you guys. After that thing with the party happened, Julien was too nervous to ask for it face to face, so we uh…snuck in while you were sleeping and got it. And then when we woke up the next day, we were like this."

"De Sky Spirits are mad at us for stealing, so dey changed us into each other!" said Julien.

Kowalski sighed before speaking up.

"Look, this has nothing to do with the Sky Spirits or anything. There was just a small chemical leak. We're on our way to get some supplies to fix up an antidote for this."

Julien perked up upon hearing this.

"Oh, dat is wonderful! I really do not want Mort to be in my body any longer. Let us go find dese supplies for de fixing!"

"Not happening, Ringtail! This is a penguin-only mission!" said Skipper.

"Don't worry, Julien. Once I make the antidote, I'll make sure that you guys get it as well."

"Thank you so much, penguins! I will make sure that all of you are to be recognized for saving de king from a lifetime of torment of having to watch Mort touch de royal feet when I do not want him to."

Skipper rolled his eyes before turning to the rest of the team.

"Men, we need to pick up the pace to make up for lost time. Move out!"

The team followed Skipper's order and slid away, heading for their car.

* * *

><p>After a half an hour of having to endure Rico's manic driving, the penguins finally reached their destination, a science lab near the outskirts of the city. When they skidded to a stop, Kowalski was the first to speak up.<p>

"According to my research, this lab should contain all three of the missing components that I need to complete the antidote. We're going to need a stick of plutonium, five ounces of Macguffium-239, and a lot of dry ice."

The penguins were about to head into the lab to retrieve the components when Kowalski suddenly stopped, causing the rest of the penguins to bump into him.

"Oh, I almost forgot! We're going to need to get our hands on a fog machine as well."

"And why do we need a fog machine, Kowalski?" asked Skipper.

"Because…um…it would look cool when I come out the lab door with a bunch of fog?"

Kowalski looked at Skipper with a nervous smile on his face, but Skipper's flat stare pretty much told him his answer. Dejected, Kowalski turned back to the door.

"Right. Not the time. Let's go grab those components."

The penguins went up to the door and headed in, with Skipper leading the way as always.

* * *

><p>There was a large amount of guards and scientists in the lab today, so getting around was slow going for the team. Thankfully, they were able to take out everyone without any real issue, despite the disadvantage of being in different bodies.<p>

Once they reached the first item on the list, which was the stick of plutonium, Skipper huddled them together to review the next steps.

"Alright team, we don't have much time before one of the humans wakes up and sounds the alarm. So we're going to have to move quickly to get everything and get out. Any questions?"

Kowalski raised his hand, irritating Skipper.

"Make it quick, Kowalski."

"I can't really shake this feeling that something is going to go wrong. Why are there so many guards for as small a place as this lab?"

Skipper grumbled, feeling that the question was a waste of valuable time.

"Look, as I said, we just have to get the supplies and get out. We won't have to worry about guards as long as we move quickly. Okay?"

Kowalski nodded, and Skipper turned around, rolling his eyes.

* * *

><p>The first two items were grabbed without a hitch. Once they reached the container where the Macguffium was kept, that was where they ran into a problem.<p>

"That is a really thick lock on that door. I don't think we can break through that." commented Kowalski.

"Rico, give it a shot." said Skipper.

The weapons expert hopped up on to the door, which was thankfully angled so that he could stand up, and chopped at the lock. But considering the difference in strength between Rico's actual body and the body he currently inhabited, the lock fought back. Rico clutched his flipper in pain as the lock remained as imposing as ever.

"Any other bright ideas, Skipper?" asked Kowalski, unable to resist a smug look on his face at knowing he was right.

"Well, you can…wait a minute. Why am I thinking of the plans? You're the options guy, so give me some options!"

Kowalski sighed before pulling out his notebook.

"Well, the case looks like it's locked up tight, so the only real option I can see is to break the glass. But unfortunately I see that there's an alarm attached to it, so our stealth option goes out the window for our exit."

"Hoover Dam, you're right! Rico, when I give you the signal, smash through the glass and grab the MacGuffium. Then we're going to need to move our butts out of here, pronto! You got that?"

Rico nodded vigorously, hopping over to the table and grabbing a hammer, which was there despite them being in a lab.

The other three penguins walked over to the door, preparing to make a run for it, while Skipper held up a flipper. The commander lowered it a couple of seconds later, and Rico roughly smashed the hammer through the glass, grabbing the tube of MacGuffium and hopping off the container, following the penguins as they slid away.

* * *

><p>It was complete chaos in the lab, as scientists and guards were running everywhere to find, or in the case of the scientists, run away from the intruder. This forced the penguins to weave through a lot of feet as they quickly made their way to the front door.<p>

However, once they finally got to the front door, they found it to be blocked off by a cage door.

"See? I knew something was going to go wrong!" said Kowalski.

"Oh no! We're trapped! What are we going to do, Skippah?" asked Private.

Skipper turned around to look behind him and noticed that the guards have spotted them and were making their way over to them. He quickly looked around the room, trying to figure out another way to get out of this predicament, but when none came, he knew he had to go for the last resort.

"Rico?"

The weapons expert turned towards Skipper.

"You know what to do."

It took a few seconds for Rico's brain to register what Skipper meant, but when it did, the weapons expert started laughing maniacally, before beginning to heave. When nothing came out, he was confused for a moment, before suddenly remembering that he was in Skipper's body.

So instead, he rushed over to Kowalski, who was busy scribbling solutions into his notebook, and jammed an elbow into Kowalski's stomach, causing the analyst to vomit out a bomb. Rico grabbed the bomb and rushed back to the door, leaving Kowalski as he clutched at his beak in embarrassment.

As Rico went to work, Skipper couldn't help but make one comment as the bomb exploded and Rico rode the explosion back to where they were, landing with a soft thump.

"I look good!"

With the now wide open hole to the outside, the penguins were able to easily escape with the supplies, driving off in their car while the guards could only watch.

* * *

><p>Once the penguins returned to the zoo, Kowalski shut himself into the lab and began working on the antidote, coming out a few hours later once again blackened with soot.<p>

"Well, do you have the antidote?" asked Skipper.

"Of course."

"That's great news, K'walski! Let's go grab the lemurs and get this all fixed." said Private.

The penguins did just that, returning a few minutes later with the lemurs as Kowalski brought out a machine and began explaining what it does.

"This machine, with the help of the dry ice, should convert the antidote into a gaseous form, which should help us all to breathe it in and hopefully return our bodies to normal."

"Well den, what are you waiting for? Turn that thing on!" said Julien.

Kowalski did as he was instructed, turning on the machine. When the antidote began spreading through the HQ, everyone in the room began breathing in deeply, making sure to get as much of the antidote in as they could.

Suddenly, everyone went rigid and collapsed, as their consciences floated out of their bodies and wandered around the room, searching for their right bodies. Eventually, they all found their correct bodies, and the animals woke up just as the machine shut off.

"So, did it work?" asked Private, unsure.

"Somebody go find me a mirror." said Skipper, rubbing his sore head.

Kowalski managed to find a mirror on the table and decided to take a look in it himself before he handed it over to Skipper.

"Newton's Knickers! I'm me again!"

Kowalski passed the mirror on down the line, and the rest of the animals found out that they were indeed back to their normal bodies. The seven of them celebrated for a little while at having everything back to normal.

Once the celebrations died down, and the group stood there not knowing what to do, Skipper decided to take the initiative, walking over to the lemurs.

"Now that we're all back to our normal, and in our case cuddly, selves, I'm going to have to ask you to get out of our HQ. Now!"

The lemurs protested, but Skipper was having none of it, roughly pushing the lemurs out of the HQ, before punting them back into the lemur habitat.

When Skipper came back down the ladder, he found the other penguins all planted in front of the TV. The commander decided to join them, sitting next to Kowalski as he decided to say something.

"Well gentlemen, it's been a wild ride over these last two days. But I'm glad to be back in my own body."

"I am too, Skippah. But it was great fun experiencing being in each other's bodies."

"True. But it's not going to happen again, because if Kowalski doesn't properly take care of his chemicals, and this happens again, he's getting double the amount of morning exercises. You got that, Kowalski?"

Kowalski gulped.

"Uh…yes, Skipper. I understand."

"Good. Now let's just sit back and enjoy some good old fashioned TV."

* * *

><p><strong>Quick Note: Everything having to do with the chemical and antidote was completely made up, so sorry if the realism is a little out there.<strong>


	6. City (Maurice & Mort)

If anyone's curious as to why I'm lumping Maurice and Mort together, that's mostly because there isn't a lot I can do in terms of story ideas for Maurice solo, so I figured putting them together would help get some creative juices flowing.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6 – City (Maurice &amp; Mort's Story)<strong>

It was a hot day at the zoo, and most of the animals were busy trying to either keep cool or just stay out of the sun. Skipper, though, decided to take the opportunity to tan while the sun was out and no one was around.

Meanwhile, inside the lemur habitat, Maurice was being run ragged, as the heat made Julien extra cranky, and the only one around that he could complain to who would listen to him was the adviser.

"Maurice! Where is de king's mango smoothie? I have been waiting for two whole minutes and the smoothie is not already in de king's hand!"

"Coming, your majesty!" said Maurice, although the tone of his reply betrayed the sheer panic he was feeling at the moment.

He clearly remembered seeing the supply of mangoes in the usual cupboard behind the bar last night before he went to bed. When he woke up, though, he checked the cupboard to find that they were all gone! While it was true that there were not that many left, he was surprised to see them disappear so quickly.

Desperate, he looked around and found Mort behind the bar, facing towards the back of the habitat and his head moving up and down, making it look like he was eating something.

"Mort, there you are! You were supposed to be helping me with making King Julien's smoothies!"

Maurice then noticed that Mort wasn't paying attention and saw what he was chewing on.

"Mort? What's that you're eating?"

Mort's head popped up in surprise before turning around to face Maurice.

"Uh…nothing?"

Mort put on as big of a smile as he could muster, but Maurice wasn't buying it one bit. Walking over in front of Mort, he found a small pile of mostly eaten mangoes.

"Mort, that was the last of our mangoes! Now how are we going to make King Julien's smoothies?"

Mort paused, thinking about his answer.

"Kisses and huggies?"

Maurice rolled his eyes and grabbed Mort's arm, intending to pull him up so he can help out, when Julien called out once again.

"Maurice! Where are you? De sun is beating down on my kingly skin, and I do not want to be getting de sun burnings!"

Maurice quickly rushed over to King Julien's throne.

"I'm here, your majesty!"

"Dere you are, Maurice! Where is de mango smoothie I wanted you to be making for me?"

Maurice nervously gulped before replying.

"Uh…unfortunately we've run out of mangoes. Mort ate the last few ones we had."

Julien sighed.

"I am very disappointed in you, Maurice. I cannot believe that you would forget to lock de mangoes away from someone like Mort."

"I know, sir, but we don't have any locks that we could use."

"Den find some! I will not be having de mango supply be sullied by de hands of someone less important den me! And bring me some more mangoes as well. I will require two mango smoothies when you two return to make up for de one dat you missed."

"But where am I going to find these locks?" asked Maurice.

"I do not know! Stop asking dese questions! You are making de king's head hurt!"

Maurice was about to leave when he was interrupted.

"Before I forget, take Mort with you as well. He needs to be taught a lesson for eating de king's mangoes."

Maurice was unsure of what Julien meant by lesson, but he decided not to ask any more questions, bringing Mort along as they hopped over the habitat's fence.

* * *

><p>Maurice and Mort spent the next hour looking around the zoo for locks, as well as any mangoes that they could find, but there was no sign of them anywhere.<p>

Tired, they made their way back to their area of the zoo, stopping between their home and the penguin habitat.

"Wait, we can't just go back in there empty-handed! Julien'll be furious!" said Maurice.

"I don't like mad King Julien!"

"You're right. Our only option is to go into the city and hope we find what we're looking for."

"But…but the city is scary!" said Mort.

Maurice paused, trying to think of a solution.

"Well, we could hire some protection. I'm sure the penguins probably wouldn't mind."

"Oh, I like that plan!"

Nodding, Maurice hopped over the fence into the penguin habitat, Mort following close behind.

* * *

><p>When the two of them dropped down in the Penguin HQ, they were greeted with the sight of Private and Rico fighting over the TV remote, while Skipper was unsuccessfully trying to break them up. Kowalski was also there as well, but he was busy awkwardly trying to convince at least one of the two of them to stop.<p>

"Rico, please! The Lunacorns are on the telly right now, and I don't want to miss it!" said Private.

"Nuh-uh!" said Rico, followed by a string of gibberish.

Having had enough, Skipper backed away from the two of them and started yelling.

"Will you two CUT IT OUT?!"

The melee stopped immediately as Private and Rico looked at Skipper, both still clutching the remote.

"Since you two can't seem to agree on a show to watch, I'm officially confiscating the remote until further notice."

"B-but Skippah! The Lunacorns!"

"I'm sure you can survive without watching that show for a while, Private."

Private sighed, disappointed.

"Same goes for you too, Rico."

Rico groaned.

Finally, they noticed the presence of the two lemurs, and Skipper acted accordingly.

"Hey! I thought I told you to stay out of here!"

Skipper moved to escort them out, but Maurice held up his hands stopping the commander in his tracks temporarily.

"Wait a second, Skipper. Won't you at least hear us out first?"

"Not interested. Now leave before I throw you out myself."

It was then that Skipper noticed that the second half of the lemur duo was not standing next to Maurice. Confused, he looked around for a second and found Mort standing right next to him, clutching his flipper while he had the biggest puppy dog look on his face he could manage.

Slightly perturbed, Skipper decided to ask what he wanted so that Mort would let go of him quicker.

"Spit it out, Sad Eyes. What do you guys want?"

"King Julien wants us to go to the big, scary city to find a lock and some more mangoes. I do not like the city! Can you come with us and protect me and Maurice? Pleeeeaaassseee?"

As much as Skipper wanted to say no, he couldn't resist the look that Mort was giving him, sighing in defeat.

"Alright, we'll come with you. But don't expect us to put our lives on the line for you guys. That'll cost extra."

"Yay, I convinced him!"

"Thanks a lot, Skipper." said Maurice.

"Hey, I'm only doing this for you guys because you're not as irritating as Ringtail usually is. Speaking of, where is he anyway?"

"Oh, he's probably still at the habitat, still sitting on his throne."

Skipper shrugged.

"Eh, no big loss. We need to get ready, so meet us out by the car."

Maurice and Mort nodded, heading back out of the HQ and towards the car, which they had a bit of difficulty finding with how well it was hidden.

When the penguins finally hopped out of their habitat a few minutes later, they slid up to where the car was to find Maurice and Mort waiting in front.

"Why aren't you two already in the car?" asked Skipper.

Maurice opened his mouth to answer, but Kowalski jumped in to answer.

"I think I should be able to answer this one, Skipper. Our car can only fit four penguins inside of it, so there are only four seatbelts. However, with the two lemurs, there are now six of us, which means that there aren't enough seatbelts to go around."

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem. Rico, I'll handle the driving. No offense, but we'd only end up losing the two of them if you drive."

Rico sighed, disappointed, but he jumped in next to the driver's seat. As the rest of the penguins jumped into the car, with Kowalski and Private taking the back seats, this left Maurice and Mort standing around, wondering what to do.

"Just grab on to the seats and hold on tight. Don't worry, I don't drive like Rico does."

"'Ey!"

Maurice reluctantly climbed into the car, grabbing one of the seats as instructed. Mort, meanwhile, chose to hop on Kowalski's lap, which caught the analyst off guard.

"Um…Skipper?"

Skipper turned around intending to ask what he wanted when he saw where Mort was sitting. He sighed, looking forward to when this would be over.

"Just let him sit there, Kowalski. This mission isn't going to take long."

Kowalski opened his beak to argue, but closed it when Mort gave him another one of his cute looks. Sighing, he held on to Mort as Skipper pulled the car out of the parking spot.

* * *

><p>The first part of the journey to the city went pretty smoothly. Skipper kept driving at a decent speed, where they would be able to get to the city in good time without having to worry about the lemurs staying in the car.<p>

Speaking of the lemurs, Maurice decided to let his mind wander for a bit, thinking that Skipper was still watching out for their safety.

However, something on the side of the road caught Rico's eye, and he immediately went ballistic, trying to grab the wheel away. As Skipper was desperately trying to hold him off, the car suddenly started swerving, pulling Maurice out of his thoughts as he clutched the back seat harder.

"Rico, what is the matter with you?!"

Kowalski looked behind the car to see what set Rico off, but he didn't really need to.

"Perky! Perky!"

Kowalski immediately managed to figure it out.

"Judging from Rico's expression and what he's saying, I would have to guess that we must have passed some kind of Miss Perky-related advertisement."

"That's wonderful, Kowalski. Now would you mind helping me subdue him?" asked Skipper, while still fending off the crazed penguin.

Kowalski looked around, trying to figure out a way to calm Rico down, when his eyes landed on Mort, and he formulated an idea.

"Mort, would you mind doing me a favor and keeping our friend Rico busy for a moment?"

Although Mort was going to agree, Kowalski didn't wait for an answer, tossing Mort into Rico's arms and somehow not sending him flying with the speed the car was going at.

Confused, Rico lifted up Mort and stared at the mouse lemur, who smiled at him.

"Hi! I'm a distraction!"

Rico immediately tossed Mort back into the backseat where Kowalski caught him. This gave Skipper enough time to chop him in the neck, knocking the hefty penguin out.

As Skipper brought the car back into control, Maurice sighed, mentally kicking himself for thinking this was going to be an easy trip.

* * *

><p>Rico woke up just as they reached their first destination, a hardware store in the middle of the city. Thankfully, the rest calmed him down, so he was back to his normal self, which Maurice was thankful for.<p>

"Alright, you two. I want you to stick close to us and do everything I say. Is that clear?" said Skipper.

Both Maurice and Mort nodded, as the six of them slipped into the store.

Like with the drive over, the first part of the search for a lock went pretty smoothly, as the penguins efficiently made their way through the busy store full of humans, leading the lemurs along to keep them out of sight as well.

However, when they passed by a large display of flowers, Mort's eyes suddenly went wide, and he quickly rushed over to where they were.

"Mort, where are you going?" whispered Maurice, not wanting to be heard.

Skipper, annoyed, slid back over to where Maurice was.

"Sad Eyes is compromising the mission! Go get him and get back over here. We're running out of time!"

Nervous, Maurice made his way over to the flowers, barely dodging being stepped on. Once he reached the display, he found Mort chewing on one of the rhododendrons.

"Mort, get down here! We don't have time for lunch!"

When Mort didn't listen, Maurice climbed up and grabbed Mort's hand, pulling him away from the flowers.

Somehow, they managed to get back to the penguins without any issue, but before they moved on, the two of them were accosted by Skipper.

"Make sure to keep an eye on him, Maurice. I don't want him running off again."

Maurice nodded, and the group resumed their search.

They managed to find a decent padlock a few minutes after. However, the large amount of people in the store prevented them from paying for it without being spotted, so they were forced to sneak out with it.

When they reached the front door, they found that there were two sensors on either side of the door, which would most likely sound the alarm if they went through it.

"I knew that it wouldn't be this easy getting out. Kowalski, give me some options!" said Skipper.

Kowalski was about to pull out his notebook, but he spotted something important and decided not to.

"No need, Skipper. I have just the way to get out of here. There's some space between the sensors and the door, so we should be able to go around them and slip through to get out of here."

"Well, that sounds easier than I thought it would. Let's go, men! And make sure not to touch any part of the sensor, or we're done for."

The penguins and lemurs made their way over to the door and slowly slipped their way through the opening one at a time, except for Maurice, who decided it would be best not to let Mort go through himself. So, he decided to carry Mort through, somehow making it through despite not being able to see where he was going.

* * *

><p>A little while later, after leaving the hardware store, they managed to find a grocery store that had mangoes available. However, considering the fact that there were only six of them there, there was no chance that they would be able to get very many of them.<p>

As they all stared at the mango display from their hiding spot, Private decided to voice what they were all thinking.

"So Skippah, how are we supposed to get all of these mangoes out to the car?"

Skipper thought for a moment before turning towards Maurice.

"How many mangoes do you think you're going to need to appease Ringtail?"

"Uh…I suppose twelve should probably last us to the next time that Alice delivers some more to us at the zoo."

"Sorry, but that's not going to happen. Even with the six of us, there's no way I'm giving up the fighting capabilities of my team just so we can all carry two of them. We should be okay if we each carry one mango. It'll still give us one flipper to defend ourselves."

Maurice didn't think that six would be enough, but he decided not to argue as he wanted to get this trip over with.

The group began slipping their way towards the display. Kowalski, Private, Maurice and Mort hid under the table, while Rico boosted Skipper up on to the table, and the commander started dropping mangoes down for Rico to catch and hand off for everyone else to hold on to. Once they reached six, Skipper hopped down from the table and grabbed his mango from Rico, who was temporarily holding it for him.

They began making their way back to the front door, but not before Rico pulled himself up on one of the registers, regurgitating some change on the counter and quickly hopping back off before the cashier noticed, rejoining the group as they went out the door.

* * *

><p>When the penguins and lemurs returned to the zoo and parked the car in the usual spot, Maurice and Mort grabbed all of the supplies. The penguins were about to head back to the HQ when Maurice called out to them.<p>

"Wait up, you guys!"

When they stopped and turned back around, Maurice sighed.

"I wanted to thank you guys for helping Mort and I out around the city. Without you, I don't think we'd ever have gotten back here!"

"No problem, you two. However, I would like you to do one thing for us." said Skipper.

"What's that?" asked Maurice.

"You didn't see anything." said Skipper, waving his flippers in circles.

"What?"

"Look, just don't tell Ringtail we helped you guys out. It might give him ideas."

Maurice stared at him for a second, before shrugging and heading towards the lemur habitat, Mort following close behind.

* * *

><p>"Where have you two been? I have been waiting here all day!"<p>

King Julien was still sitting on his throne as Maurice and Mort were passing by to put away the mangoes.

"Uh…we were out in the city all day looking for the lock and the mangoes. We did manage to find both of them, though." said Maurice.

"Oh, dat is great! Now Mort won't be able to get into my mangoes, and I can have as many smoothies as I want! Oh, by de way, for taking so long, you now owe me three smoothies."

Maurice sighed before replying.

"Look, we only managed to get six mangoes for you. I can do two smoothies for you, but the third will have to wait until Alice brings them tomorrow."

"Ugh, fine. Dat third smoothie must be heavenly, though! I will not be happy if my smoothie is not de best tasting smoothie I have ever had!"

"Of course, your majesty."

As Maurice set to work on making more smoothies, he was happy to know that him and Mort weren't alone in having to wait on someone like King Julien.


	7. Sugar (Rico)

For those of you who remembered my note back in Chapter 3 about the package of Marsh Meow-Meows being important, this is the chapter you've been waiting for.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7 – Sugar (Rico's Story)<strong>

It was yet another day at the zoo, just after closing time. Skipper has decided to give the other penguins the day off after a long day of performing for the humans.

Private and Rico were spending their free time watching TV, while Skipper himself was sitting at the table enjoying a cup of his favorite coffee.

As for Kowalski, he decided to spend some more time in his lab, performing some more tests on the Winkies that they recovered from the factory. However, this time he decided to take some precautions.

He first classified each of the chemicals that he had not yet classified so that he knew exactly what they all were if and when he decided to use them. Secondly, he restricted the airflow from the lab's vents to prevent anything from getting out and spreading too far.

While it did make the lab a little hotter than he wanted to, he felt it was worth it to prevent an incident like the body switching from a few days ago.

Meanwhile, back in the main area of the HQ, Rico was reluctantly watching the Lunacorns with Private. While he did desperately try to find something else to do, he couldn't find a spot that would keep him out of earshot of that retched show. He also knew that he couldn't really just leave, because that would lead to questions from Skipper, and he didn't want to get on the commander's bad side again, especially after the remote incident from yesterday.

So, begrudgingly, he sat down next to Private and tried to watch the show along with him, but it was increasingly becoming difficult for him to watch and keep his lunch down at the same time.

Suddenly, an explosion came from the lab, blowing the door off of its hinges and landing just short of Skipper. The rest of the team jumped into action, carefully making their way to the door.

"K'walski? Are you alright in there?" asked Private, as he called into the quiet lab.

Suddenly, the team could hear coughing coming from inside the lab. The three of them were about to head inside to find the analyst, when Kowalski came out of the lab, completely covered in soot, but otherwise alright.

"Kowalski? What did I tell you about causing explosions? That's Rico's job!" said Skipper as he let his guard down.

Rico nodded in agreement, punctuating it with a string of gibberish.

"Sorry, Skipper. Rico. That explosion was completely by accident. But I do have good news."

"And what would that be?" asked Skipper, his eyebrow raised.

"I have finally discovered the reason as to why the Winkies managed to survive the explosion of the factory unharmed!"

Kowalski stood there a moment, giddy, until Skipper was forced to get him back on track.

"Well? Out with it!"

"Oh…right. Judging from the other ingredients that I managed to pull from the Winkie, it turns out that Wally Winky most likely was intending to create a new candy, which would have had such a hard coating, that no human or animal would ever be able to get into it."

"I knew that man was cuckoo, but I never thought he would stoop this low." said Skipper as he began pacing.

Kowalski cleared his throat before continuing.

"Apparently, some of the last shipment of Winkies must have gotten into a vat of some sort which had the coating in it, which is why they managed to survive the explosion."

"Great work, Kowalski! Imagine the kind of tools we could make using this new concoction! You do have the formula for it, right?"

Kowalski nodded before returning to the lab for a few seconds, returning with a box of Winkies.

"I do feel bad for taking the Winkies away from you guys before you could have some, so I set aside a few of them for you guys to have."

Private's eyes lit up, and he went to grab one, but he stopped when he realized he forgot about something.

"Hey K'walski, aren't these covered in that indestructible coating? Wouldn't they just break our beaks?"

"Oh yes, I almost forgot about that. Give me a few minutes and I'll have them ready."

Kowalski once again ducked back into his lab. For the next few seconds, all the other three penguins could hear was the hiss of one of Kowalski's Bunsen burners, as he heated the Winkies to melt the covering. Eventually, after they cooled down to a temperature suitable for consumption, Kowalski grabbed the tray and returned to the other penguins.

"They might be a little more melted than before, but they should be just as good."

Private and Rico rushed over and grabbed their share of the Winkies, immediately gobbling them down and savoring the taste as it went down their throats. Once Skipper grabbed one of them and Kowalski set the tray down on the table, Rico saw that there was in fact still one more.

Looking around to make sure no one saw him, Rico slowly reached his flipper over to the tray, intending to take that last Winky, when his flipper was suddenly slapped away by Skipper.

As Rico rubbed his sore flipper, Skipper placed himself in between the weapons specialist and the box.

"Not happening, Rico. You know how you get when you have too much sugar."

Rico sighed in disappointment, before suddenly remembering the surprise he had hidden away. Thankfully, he avoided making the change in his demeanor obvious, so Skipper walked off without asking any questions. He ate the last Winky himself, though, to prevent Rico from getting any more ideas.

Once Skipper was out of sight, Rico gleefully rubbed his flippers together before heading over to where the trophy for Private's second place fish was. He looked around once more to make sure no one was looking before lifting the trophy and slipping into the hole behind it.

* * *

><p>Rico licked his beak as he gazed upon the package of Marsh Meow-Meows that he took from the store a few days ago. Amazingly enough, despite the very obvious hiding place, no one bothered to check in this hiding place, most likely due to everything that's happened since then.<p>

Still, Rico was happy that no one saw these in here. As he gobbled up the Marsh Meow-Meows, he sat there for a moment, savoring the taste. Unfortunately, seconds later, he started to twitch as the sugar rush started to take its hold on the manic penguin.

Suddenly worried that he was going to get caught, Rico attempted to try and calm his increasingly beating heart, by doing things like slowly breathing. Unfortunately, the sugar rush took over, and Rico took off running, smashing through the wall separating the hiding place from the main part of the HQ.

All of the other penguins were in the room, so they got a full view of the carnage that Rico brought when smashing through that wall. Skipper immediately went into action.

"We've got a maniac on the loose! Pursue and restrain!"

Private and Kowalski attempted to grab Rico and hold him down, but they were thrown off quite easily, landing in a heap against the wall across the room.

Knowing that he probably wouldn't have enough time to get the two of them back up for another attempt, Skipper decided to take another course of action, slowly walking up to Rico to try to talk him down. However, before he could say a word, Rico once again took off running, almost sprinting up the ladder and disappearing.

All the penguins could hear next were crashes, as the manic penguin ran through the zoo, causing destruction wherever he ran.

"Ugh…what just happened?" asked Kowalski as he pushed Private off of him and stood up, clutching his head.

"I think I have an idea." said Skipper.

Before Kowalski could ask what that idea was, Skipper climbed over the rubble of the hiding spot, returning a minute later with the discarded Marsh Meow-Meow wrapper, looking noticeably angry.

"Somebody had better tell me where Rico got his hands on Marsh Meow-Meows right now, or you two will be in so deep!"

Kowalski opened his beak to try to explain, but Private interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Skippah, but we had no idea that Rico got his hands on those!"

Kowalski cleared his throat before elaborating.

"What Private said is right, Skipper. If I had to guess, I would assume he must have found a package during our last snack run before everything that happened with the factory. We must have not noticed Rico put the package into our containers before we left."

Kowalski and Private waited as Skipper continued to breathe heavily, almost making it seem like he was about to yell some more. Eventually, Skipper sighed.

"I'm sorry, you guys. We're all at fault here for not keeping an eye on Rico and making sure he doesn't get too much sugar."

Skipper was continuing on with his apology when Kowalski was beginning to get worried, as he could still hear Rico causing mayhem in the zoo. Wanting to catch him before something goes wrong, Kowalski spoke up.

"Um…Skipper?"

"Hm? What is it, Kowalski?"

"Shouldn't we be trying to restrain Rico before he destroys the zoo?"

Skipper realized he was rambling, and coughed awkwardly before finally returning to business.

"Alright men, we've got an escaped psychopathic penguin on the loose. We need to make sure that he does not leave the zoo under any circumstances so that we can restrain him. Is that clear?"

Both Kowalski and Private replied in the affirmative.

"Commence Operation: Sugar Rush!"

The penguins adopted their fighting postures before heading topside.

* * *

><p>When they finally landed on top of the fake iceberg, they finally got a good look at the state of the zoo.<p>

"Oh dear." said Private.

While it wasn't as bad as Skipper thought it would be, it was still pretty messy, as there were such things as multiple holes in walls, toppled over benches and popcorn carts, and other forms of damage that Alice would no doubt be unhappy to see.

Before they could officially start the search for Rico, Kowalski suddenly stopped in his tracks, suddenly remembering something he could use.

"Excuse me for a second, gentlemen. I just remembered something I can get that could help us out."

Skipper sighed, exasperated.

"Just hurry up. We're kind of running out of time here."

Kowalski hopped back down the hole into the HQ, returning a few minutes later wearing a pair of headphones with two radar dishes, one strapped to his back and one in his hand. He also had a machine in his hand that would report the data that came in through the radar dishes.

"Using these, I should hopefully be able to get a lock on Rico's position so that we can find him."

"Good thinking, Kowalski! Now let's go find Rico before we don't have a zoo to live in."

* * *

><p>The penguins spent the next hour searching for Rico, with Kowalski keeping an eye on the weapons expert's signal. Unfortunately, with the speed that he was running at, it was making it difficult for the analyst to remain in range. This ended up forcing the three of them to run to keep up.<p>

Eventually, the team needed to rest, as the constant running was starting to wear them out. As they caught their breath, Private decided to speak up.

"What are we gonna do, Skippah? We're never going to catch Rico at this rate!"

"Don't worry, Private. We'll find a way somehow."

Skipper turned towards his second-in-command.

"Kowalski, do you still have a lock on Rico's position?"

Kowalski studied his radar for a moment before replying.

"No sir, I-"

Before he could complete his sentence, he suddenly heard beeping from his headphones. He looked back down at the radar and saw a faint green dot near the outside of the radar screen.

"Wait, I've got a signal again! He's…coming this way?!"

Surprisingly, the signal was heading right towards the center of the radar, accompanied by the constant string of Rico's gibberish coming from far away and getting louder by the second.

Skipper was forced to immediately formulate a plan with the limited time they had before Rico arrived.

"Kowalski! Private! Spread out! I want this entire section covered as best as the three of us can! Rico won't get away from us this time."

The three of them went into action, each of them covering one of the paths of the intersection that they were standing in. They all fell completely silent, keeping an eye out as well as listening intently for any sign of the manic penguin.

Unfortunately for them, Rico burst through the bushes on the side that they weren't covering. He ended up nearly running over Private. But with sheer luck, Private managed to grab on to Rico's feet, tripping him up and sending him face first to the ground.

Surprised, Private almost let go of Rico, but Skipper spoke up as him and Kowalski were running towards the two of them.

"Hold on, Private! We're almost there!"

Rico desperately tried to loosen the grip on his feet so that he could escape, but Private held on as tight as he could. He even ended up getting dragged along for a few feet. However, once Skipper and Kowalski reached the two of them, they immediately jumped on top of Rico, preventing him from moving another inch.

"Great work, Private!" said Skipper while he was catching his breath.

"Thanks, Skippah! Um…do you want me to go find some rope so we can tie him up?"

"That would be great."

Private saluted before sliding off. Rico continued to struggle mightily to get Skipper and Kowalski off of him, but their combined weight was too much even for a penguin of his considerable size.

Finally, Private returned a few minutes later with some rope, and Skipper and Kowalski went to work, completely tying the manic penguin up so that he couldn't go anywhere. Despite the complete restriction to his movement, Rico was still trying to escape, slowly slithering his way away from the group.

After taking a moment to rest, Skipper was back up and giving orders.

"Kowalski, you and I are going to be carrying Rico back to the HQ so that he can get all of the sugar out of his system. Private, you stay close behind us and make sure that he doesn't try anything. Is that clear?"

"Aye aye, Skippah!"

Kowalski and Skipper went and picked up the weapons expert, who was still twitching due to the effects of the sugar rush. Thankfully though, he'd already given up on any chance of escaping, so he simply let the two of them carry him, resigned to his fate.

* * *

><p>Once the penguins returned to the HQ, they set the bound-up Rico down next to Ms. Perky. As they waited, Private, Kowalski and Skipper took turns keeping an eye on Rico to make sure nothing bad happened before he was completely better.<p>

Eventually, the twitching in Rico's eye died down, and he fell asleep as he finally crashed. Private was the one watching at that moment, and he rushed over to the other two when he noticed the weapons expert fall asleep.

"Skippah! Rico's fallen asleep. I think we should be okay untying him now." he said through a loud whisper.

"I'll be the judge of that." said Skipper, giving Private a wary eye as he walked over to where Rico was.

The commander studied Rico as the psychotic penguin slept; even calling Kowalski over to perform a couple of tests on him to make sure that he was actually asleep. Once Kowalski finished, he turned towards Skipper and Private.

"Rico's heart rate and blood pressure are back to normal levels, so I'm 99 percent positive that once he wakes up, Rico should be back to his usual self."

"And what about the other one percent?" asked Skipper, eyeing the analyst.

"There is a very miniscule possibility that Rico may have learned how to slow down his heartbeat so that it would appear that he was back to normal. I highly doubt that that would be the case, however."

Skipper sighed.

"Well, I suppose 99 percent is better than nothing. You two can start untying him, but do not wake him under any circumstances. I want to make sure that he's completely fine before I consider letting him back to work."

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Rico finally woke up. As the manic penguin clutched his head, he turned towards the other penguins, who were sitting at the table.<p>

"Ugh…wha' happ'n?"

Private and Kowalski jumped, not expecting Rico to get up this early. Skipper, however, was prepared, walking over to Rico as he slowly stood up.

"Mind explaining this?" asked Skipper, holding out the empty wrapper that the Marsh Meow-Meows were formerly in.

"Uh…oops?" said Rico, attempting to play it off as nothing big, but Skipper wasn't having it.

Becoming increasingly nervous due to the death stare Skipper was giving him, Rico went in the complete opposite direction, dropping to his knees and babbling out a long string of gibberish, with a few forms of "I sor'y!" sprinkled in there as well. He even almost got to the point of groveling at Skipper's feet.

Once Rico was finished with his apology, he looked up at his commander, waiting nervously to see if he would accept his apology.

As much as Skipper didn't want to, the look on Rico's face made him feel like the manic penguin was sincere about his apology. Sighing, he kneeled down, putting the empty wrapper in front of Rico's face.

"If I ever see you with one of these again, you will be doing push-ups for a very…long…time. Do you understand me?"

Rico nodded vigorously, knowing that he would never do something as stupid as that ever again.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk to some of the other animals. We're going to have to work together if we want to repair all of the damage Rico caused."

The other three sighed, slightly disappointed that they were going to have to help out with the cleanup effort despite it being Rico's doing, but they all willingly helped out, and the zoo was back to normal a few hours later.


	8. Reunited (Skipper)

**Chapter 8 – Reunited (Skipper's Story)**

It was yet another beautiful day at the Central Park Zoo. However, instead of spending the day outside like most of the other animals are, the penguins decided to spend some time doing surveillance.

Now, they weren't actually spying on the rest of the animals. The penguins remembered quite clearly how angry everyone got before Kowalski's Amnesia Spray came into the picture, and they didn't want to have to go through that again.

So, after Skipper carefully selected targets that he felt needed to be watched, Kowalski somehow managed to get into the security systems for each of them, and the team was split up to handle each target.

As Kowalski, Private and Rico kept watch, Skipper began pacing, anxiously waiting for any news of suspicious activity. When none came, he decided to take matters into his own hands, walking over to where Kowalski was at work.

"Kowalski, any suspicious activity from Hoboken?"

Kowalski turned his head around to face his commander.

"No sir. The animals are in plain sight, but none of them are doing anything suspicious."

Skipper opened his beak to reply, only to be interrupted by a thought Kowalski suddenly had.

"I do admit, though, that this would probably be due to the fact that there are still humans walking around the zoo."

Skipper paused, thinking about what Kowalski said.

"Good point. Make sure that you're watching whenever that blasted zoo closes."

"Will do, Skipper."

Kowalski saluted before returning to his surveillance.

Skipper, meanwhile, decided to check on Private next, walking over to where he was stationed.

"What about you, Private? Anything going on at Seaville?"

Private turned around to face Skipper before replying.

"Nothing yet, Skippah! I'm sure I'll find something eventually, though."

"Great work, Private! I like your attitude. They've got to be hiding something."

Private smiled before turning back around. Before Skipper could check on Rico, the young penguin suddenly cried out.

"Skippah! I found something!"

Skipper immediately turned back around and rushed to Private's station.

"What is it, Private? Is Blowhole planning something?"

"It's not Blowhole. I definitely think you should see this, though."

Private moved off to the side, allowing Skipper to man the controls of the camera. He couldn't find anything unusual at first, so he turned towards Private.

"Where is it? I don't see any weapons or anything."

Private walked over and pointed at two specks that were inside a large glass enclosure. Skipper squinted, unable to make out what they were.

"What, those two specks? They don't seem very important to me."

"Switch to another camera. You might be able to get a closer view." said Private.

Skipper did so, switching through each camera feed, before he finally found one that was closer to the enclosure.

"Oh look! It's more penguins!" said Private as he looked at the screen.

Skipper, meanwhile, was looking at the screen in bewilderment. He took a few seconds to collect himself before speaking.

"They're not just any old penguins, Private." said Skipper as he faced the young penguin.

By this point, Kowalski and Rico have abandoned their posts and walked over to where Skipper and Private were.

"What do you mean, Skippah? Do you know who they are?" asked Private.

Skipper sighed before replying.

"Yes…I do. I never thought that I would see them again, but those two are Manfredi and Johnson."

Private's beak dropped open, not expecting this kind of revelation. Rico, meanwhile, just stared blankly at Skipper.

"But Skippah, how are they still alive? I remember you telling me how they died multiple times!"

Before Skipper could answer, Kowalski nervously coughed. When Private looked at the analyst, Kowalski tried looking away, but his expression betrayed him.

"Wait, you knew too, K'walski?"

"Not immediately. Skipper mentioned those two to me once in passing."

Private waited to see if Kowalski would elaborate, but when he didn't, he decided to speak up.

"Well, why don't we go rescue them? With them here, Blowhole won't stand a chance next time he tries to do something!"

"What are you trying to say, Private? Are you telling me that the team that I put together isn't good enough to take on someone like Blowhole?" asked Skipper.

"Well, um…no. I'm just saying that bringing Manfredi and Johnson to the zoo would make our team that much better."

Skipper paused as he considered what Private was asking.

"Well, I suppose there's nothing wrong with giving it a shot. Team, we're heading off to Seaville!"

Private beamed once he realized that they were going to have two new teammates to work with. But as the four of them made their way towards the ladder, Kowalski leaned over to whisper in Skipper's ear.

"Skipper, are you sure you want to do this? You do remember why you guys parted ways in the first place, right?"

Skipper was well aware of that fact, but he waved it off.

"Nonsense, Kowalski. I'm a firm believer in second chances."

"I'm pretty sure that they're probably on their…"

Kowalski pulled out his abacus and quickly did some calculations.

"67th chance, at least at this point in time."

"Well, my point still stands, either way. Besides, they might just surprise me."

Kowalski sighed, but he decided not to argue as he followed the rest of the team out of the HQ.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, the penguins arrived at Seaville, having taken the submarine. Before Kowalski could direct the sub to the surface, Skipper put a flipper on his shoulder, signaling for him to stop.<p>

"I want to make sure that no one surprises us when we surface. Private, take a look through the periscope and see where we are."

Private saluted and jumped up, pulling the periscope down. Unfortunately, his short stature combined with the height the scope was at meant that the young penguin's feet didn't reach the ground.

"Um…can someone give me a hand here?"

Rico immediately rushed over and kneeled down under the periscope, allowing Private to stand on his back.

"Oh…thank you, Rico."

"S'alright." said the weapons expert as he held Private up.

Private finally took a look through the periscope, turning the scope around while being careful not to cause any strain to Rico.

"I don't see anything suspicious, Skippah."

"As I figured. They wouldn't be dumb enough to have a trap in plain sight. What about our targets, Private?"

Private spun the scope around once more as he looked for any signs of Manfredi and Johnson. Eventually, he spotted their enclosure, as he excitedly pointed his flipper towards their destination.

"It's over that way, Skippah!"

"Use your nautical terms, Private!"

"Oh, sorry. Targets off the port bow, Skippah!"

Skipper stared at Private for a second.

"What in the heck are you talking about, Private?"

"I believe that he is referring to the left side of the sub, Skipper." said Kowalski.

"Oh…of course. I knew that."

Skipper nervously coughed into his flipper before directing Kowalski to head to the left. Once he felt comfortable enough, he signaled to his second-in-command, who began surfacing as Private hopped off of Rico's back.

When they finally surfaced, the team immediately jumped out; ready for anything that would pop up. Nothing came, though, so Skipper signaled for them to move, and they jumped one by one off of the submarine, swimming their way over to the enclosure.

Manfredi and Johnson were busy trying to keep themselves entertained, considering they had nowhere to go. Manfredi was playing on his harmonica, while Johnson was bouncing a ball off of the side of the enclosure. Neither of them were paying attention to what was going on outside, so they both jumped when they heard knocking on the glass.

When they turned around, they were caught off guard when they saw four penguins standing right next to the glass.

"Hey Manfredi, isn't that…"

"Yeah, it is!"

The two of them rushed as quickly as they could to the side of the enclosure, considering their current states.

"Skipper, I can't believe it's really you!" said Manfredi.

"What are you guys doing here, anyway?" asked Johnson.

"We're going to break you guys out!"

The thick glass muffled Skipper's speech, so they were unable to understand what he was saying.

"What? Speak up! We can't hear you!" said Johnson.

Skipper rolled his eyes before placing his flippers around his beak to make him sound louder.

"I said we're going to get you guys out of here!" he yelled.

"Did you hear that, Manfredi?"

"I did! We can finally get out of this godforsaken place!"

While Manfredi and Johnson celebrated their impending freedom, Skipper went to work, using one of Kowalski's tools that allowed him to cut through the glass separating the team and the other two penguins.

"I don't like how quiet it is, Skipper." said Kowalski as he, Private and Rico stood guard.

"I know, Kowalski. There's nothing we can do about it, though."

Skipper finally cut through the glass, successfully pulling Manfredi and Johnson out of the enclosure. However, once the two penguins set foot on the ground, the alarms immediately went off.

"We've been made! Everyone back to the sub!" yelled Skipper.

The security team was there within seconds, but thankfully all of the penguins made good time getting to the sub. However, Manfredi and Johnson ended up being the only ones left who haven't gotten into the sub already, which forced the other four penguins to pull the two of them in, which wasn't easy considering they both rivaled Rico in sheer girth.

Just as the security team was about to reach them, Manfredi and Johnson were finally pulled in, and Kowalski immediately sent the submarine into a nose dive, with Skipper barely managing to close the hatch in time.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once they were out of range of Seaville. Before anyone else could speak, Manfredi stood up, slowly making his way over to Skipper and shaking his flipper.

"Thanks for saving us, Skipper. I don't know what we'd do if we had to be in there any longer."

"Anything for a couple of old friends, Manfredi."

"Say, I was wondering. How come you guys didn't get us the last time you were here?" asked Johnson, curious.

"Well, um…we actually had no idea you guys were here back then. Heck, I thought you guys were dead! I was making up stories about how you two died to my team ever since then!"

Johnson was satisfied with his answer, and both he and Manfredi sat down in a couple of free seats on the sub. This allowed Kowalski to take a look at the two of them while he didn't need to handle the sub. What he saw wasn't very pretty.

Both of them were covered in bruises, and they were both sporting eye patches. Manfredi was missing a leg, while Johnson had a broken flipper. He didn't think that they would be suitable for field work, but he knew better than to try and convince Skipper to ditch them, especially when he never really saw what they were capable of.

* * *

><p>After finally returning to the zoo, Private and Rico decided to give Manfredi and Johnson a tour around the HQ, which allowed Kowalski to voice his concerns to Skipper.<p>

"Skipper, you do realize that Alice is going to ask questions when she sees two more penguins show up in our habitat out of the blue, right? Especially with how banged up they are! They're going to think we had something to do with it!"

"Well, all we have to do is keep them in the HQ while the zoo is open, and no one will know. Problem solved."

Kowalski sighed in exasperation before replying.

"Look, as much as I want to trust your judgment in this, Skipper, I would like to respectfully point out how unfit Manfredi and Johnson look for active duty. I mean…for god's sake, Manfredi only has one leg!"

"Don't worry about it, Kowalski. We'll figure out a way around it." said Skipper, waving the analyst off.

* * *

><p>Little did Skipper know, his faith in Manfredi and Johnson was entirely misplaced, as the team went through a long string of painful missions, mostly due to their accident-prone natures.<p>

For instance, during one mission where they were tasked with watching over Eggy, Manfredi and Johnson were thrown around quite easily by the duckling, forcing Skipper to split his attention between Eggy and those two so that they don't get more hurt than they already were.

Another more dangerous incident they ended up in was when they had to go into the city to rescue Max the Moon Cat from the pound. Manfredi and Johnson ended up blowing their cover by knocking over a lamp, and they had to rush to get Max out of his cage and out of the building. The others even had to carry Manfredi and Johnson considering how badly they were lagging behind in their escape.

Even a simple snack run became an ordeal for them, as Manfredi and Johnson's weight was knocking over shelves, costing them even more money with all of the broken stuff they had to get.

Manfredi and Johnson's ineptitude was starting to get on the nerves of the rest of the penguins, so they convened a meeting after getting the other two penguins out of the way.

"Alright, let's just get straight to the point. As much as it pains me to admit it, Manfredi and Johnson are holding this team back. We've been unable to get anything done considering how we've needed to make sure those two don't blow the mission."

Skipper looked around the room, finally landing on Kowalski, who was giving his commander a smug look due to being proved right once again. Skipper gave the analyst a dirty look in return before facing the rest of the team.

"Anybody have any ideas on how to get rid of them? I don't want to just send them back to Seaville. It makes Hoboken look like the French Riviera!"

Skipper repressed a shudder at being reminded of Hoboken. As he looked back at the team, he found that Kowalski already had his notepad out.

"Well, we could just send them to Alaska. We would need to find a box that could ship them, though."

"Good idea, but let's file that as a last resort. We don't really want to throw them to the wolves unless we need to. Anyone else?"

Private raised his hand.

"Yes, Private?"

"How about we get them on a boat that's going to a tropical island? It'd be like a vacation for them!"

Skipper rubbed his beak as he considered Private's idea.

"You know, that might just work. The only problem is that there's no telling how long they would actually stay there."

"I think I might have an idea on how to fix that, Skipper."

Skipper looked over at his second-in-command and beckoned for him to continue.

"All we would have to do is pretend that we're the travel agency and tell them every so often that their vacation has been extended for no charge. Judging from our experiences with those two, I doubt that they would complain about more time on vacation."

"That's brilliant, Kowalski! That might just get those two out of our hair for good."

"Hey, what about me?" asked Private.

"Oh, sorry about that, Private. We appreciate your input as well."

Private wasn't entirely happy with Skipper's enthusiasm, but he decided something was better than nothing and remained quiet. This allowed Skipper to give out his orders.

"Kowalski, head over to Alice's office and find me a boat that is heading for someplace tropical. Make sure that they don't have any policies against penguins. Private and Rico are staying with me to work on the steps for our plan. I want to make sure this goes off without a hitch, or we're going to be stuck with those two for an eternity."

Kowalski saluted and headed off to Alice's office. The rest of the team sat down at the table and began formulating the details to the plan.

* * *

><p>Kowalski returned to the HQ a little while later with the information, successfully avoiding Manfredi and Johnson, who were on their way back as well.<p>

"I managed to find a good boat to Hawaii heading out of the New York harbor that should get Manfredi and Johnson there. The boat ride should get rid of them for a much longer time than usual."

Skipper opened his beak to congratulate Kowalski on his find, but the analyst interrupted him.

"Ssh, they're coming! We need to be ready to greet them."

Kowalski quickly rushed over to the table and sat down just as Manfredi and Johnson made their way down the ladder.

"Hey Manfredi and Johnson, I've got some great news for you! We've just received a note that said you both have won a trip to Hawaii!" said Skipper.

Both of them turned to face the other four penguins, curious.

"I don't remember entering a contest. Do you remember anything, Johnson?"

"No, I don't. Are you sure it's for us, Skipper?"

"Of course. Take a look at the note and see for yourself."

Skipper walked over and showed them the note, which was crudely drawn with crayon. Thankfully, just like everyone else, neither Manfredi nor Johnson were able to read, so they just assumed that it was legit.

"Wow, I didn't think we'd ever win a trip to Hawaii!"

"So, when are we leaving?"

"According to the data from the ship that you guys are going to be on, it leaves in about an hour. That should give us enough time to drive you guys over and get you on board."

"Sounds great. Let's go!" said Manfredi.

* * *

><p>A little while later, the penguins arrived at the New York harbor with about ten minutes to spare before the boat left.<p>

Not wanting to waste any time, Skipper started pushing Manfredi and Johnson up the ramp into the ship.

"You seem eager to get rid of us, Skipper."

"Don't be silly, Johnson. We just wanted to make sure you guys are safely on board on time."

"Oh…okay. Thanks for that, Skipper."

By this point, it was getting close to departure time, so Skipper began walking off, but not before saying his goodbyes.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye, you two. Have fun in Hawaii. I'm sure you'll have a great time!"

Skipper quickly rushed off of the boat just as the ramp was pulling away, dodging the humans as he made his way back to the rest of the team, who were all waving goodbye to Manfredi and Johnson.

"I'm going to miss them, Skippah! They may have been nothing but trouble, but they were the sweetest guys you'll ever meet."

"I know, Private. I didn't want to have to do this, but sacrifices had to be made to keep our team in top form."

The penguins spent the next minute or so waving goodbye to Manfredi and Johnson before heading off to their car, not realizing that the boat was heading north instead of south, filled with large quantities of fish.

* * *

><p><strong>And yes, I'm leaving where they actually ended up open to interpretation. Needless to say, we won't be hearing from them again.<strong>


	9. Roommates (Marlene)

Alright, originally I had different plans for this chapter, but considering I haven't actually seen the episode that I'm basing it off of, I don't think I'd be able to pull it off. So, if anyone can point me to where I can find a good video of the episode entitled "Otter Things Have Happened" that doesn't cost anything, I would really appreciate it. And I tried Youtube, by the way. No dice.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9 – Roommates (Marlene's Story)<strong>

It was yet another beautiful day at the zoo, and Marlene had just woken up, preparing for yet another day of entertainment when the gates finally open.

As she walked out of her cave, about ready to hop in the water and go for a swim, she suddenly noticed something was wrong.

"What the-"

It turns out that there wasn't any water at all. She could clearly see the bottom of the tank, which greatly confused her.

"What's the deal? Why would they just take all of my water without even asking?" she said to herself.

Shrugging, she decided to head over and ask the penguins to see if they knew anything about it. The only problem was that she couldn't actually get to the other side, due to the large gap between her and the outside of the habitat.

Marlene quickly looked around, trying to see if there was anything she could use to bridge the gap. Unfortunately, the only thing she could see was the board that Alice uses to cross the gap herself, and it was on the other side.

Unable to think of any other options, she walked over as close to the edge as possible and peered over at the penguin habitat, hoping that they weren't inside the HQ. Thankfully, they were all topside, so Marlene cupped her hands around her mouth, yelling as loud as she could.

"Hey you guys! I need some help over here!"

Marlene waited, hoping that one of the penguins heard her. She finally saw Skipper's head turn a few seconds later, and she waved to catch his attention. She saw him say something to Kowalski before finally heading over to her.

However, before she could warn him, Skipper hopped over the fence and fell face first into the ditch with a yelp. Marlene looked into the ditch as she cringed.

"Sorry, Skipper. I tried to warn you that there wasn't any water."

Skipper grumbled before getting up.

"What's the deal, Marlene? Why don't you have any water in here?"

"You got me. I was hoping you guys would know."

"Well, we don't. Now, would you mind helping me up?"

Marlene reached out her hand, grabbing Skipper and pulling him up.

"Now what?" she asked.

Skipper didn't reply. Instead, he placed the tip of his flipper into his beak and whistled loudly. Slightly confused, Marlene waited to see what was going on when she saw Kowalski, Private and Rico hop out of the pool back at the penguin habitat and head their direction.

Thankfully, Skipper was more prepared this time, as he stopped them in their tracks just as they got up to the top of the fence separating the habitat from the pathways.

"Marlene? What are you and Skippah doing all the way over there?" asked Private as he looked at the empty chasm separating them.

"I wish I knew. I just woke up, and all of the water in my tank was gone!"

Kowalski suddenly hopped off of the fence without warning, disappearing from view. As Marlene looked on confused, the analyst suddenly hopped back up a minute later carrying a large yellow sign.

"I think this might have something to do with your problem, Marlene."

Suddenly beginning to understand, Marlene looked back at Kowalski expectantly.

"Really? What's it say?"

Kowalski studied the sign for a few moments.

"I don't know. Judging from the color of the sign, this must be some kind of warning."

"Oh my god, I knew somebody was going after Marlene. Come on, we need to take you some place safe!" said Skipper, grabbing Marlene's hand.

"Skipper, wait! I doubt that it's anything that bad. It's more likely something to do with her habitat then with her."

Skipper was slightly disappointed it wasn't what he thought it was, but he didn't dwell on it.

"Alright, we should take this sign over to the monkeys and see what it says."

Kowalski, Private and Rico saluted as they hopped off of the fence.

"Hey! Get back here and help us, soldiers!" said Skipper.

The rest of the team hopped back on the fence, slightly embarrassed, as they formed a chain, allowing Skipper and Marlene to climb out of the habitat.

* * *

><p>A little while later, the group found themselves inside the monkey habitat, looking at Mason as he intently studied the sign that Kowalski gave him. Finally, he shrugged and showed the sign to Phil, who started signing, translating to Mason what the sign was supposed to mean.<p>

"This habitat is closed for repairs. Was there some sort of damage to your habitat, Miss Marlene?"

Marlene thought for a second.

"Well, there was all that damage Rico caused. I thought we cleared that all up?"

"Well, there is a possibility that we might have missed something during that night that Alice must have noticed. That must be why she drained your pool." said Kowalski.

"Then why would she leave me in my habitat instead of putting me somewhere else?"

"Well, we all know what Alice is like, but let's not dwell on that. The real problem we're facing is where you're going to live while your habitat is getting repaired. We don't want you to have to spend your nights living in a cage, or worse." said Skipper.

Marlene paused as she thought about what she wanted to do.

"How about I live with you guys?"

"Absolutely not. We can't afford to be giving away our secrets to an outsider, even if it is you." said Skipper, shaking his head.

"Oh come on, Skippah! We can't just leave Marlene out in the cold!" said Private.

Skipper looked around at the rest of his team. Rico was of course being Rico, but from what he could tell from Kowalski's expression, he seemed like he wouldn't mind. Reluctantly, Skipper sighed.

"Fine, but only until the damage to her habitat is repaired. Once it's fixed, she's gone. You got that?"

"No problem, Skipper. I didn't have any plans on sticking around after anyway." said Marlene.

Skipper nodded, apparently satisfied. Private, on the other hand, immediately hugged Marlene.

"Yay! It'll be like a sleepover!"

Marlene gave a reluctant chuckle, but she did agree internally that it would be nice to spend some more time out of her habitat for once.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, by the time Marlene's living situation was sorted out, the zoo was about to open for the day, so Marlene and the penguins had to quickly run back to the habitat to get ready.<p>

"Alright, men….and Marlene. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unfortunately unable to get warmed up for the day, so we're going to have to wing it. I want extra cute and cuddly today. No exceptions!" said Skipper.

The other three penguins saluted, but Marlene raised her hand.

"Uh, what should I do?"

Skipper was about to answer, but he paused as he realized he didn't think that far ahead. Thankfully, Kowalski was there to help.

"We do need to have you visible so Alice doesn't start asking questions, so keeping you inside the HQ is not an option. What you can do is swim around the pool. That should hopefully pacify the humans."

"Great idea, Kowalski! There is one thing I must ask of you, though, Marlene. Please make sure not to draw any unnecessary attention to us."

Marlene was curious, but the lack of time before the zoo's opening prevented her from delving into his reasoning, so she nodded.

"You won't even know I'm here."

"But you will be. Won't you?" asked Private, confused.

Marlene chose not to answer that question, instead hopping into the water just as the crowds started coming in to the zoo.

As the penguins put on their usual routine, Marlene started to swim around in the water, doing tricks every so often behind the penguins.

Whenever Alice showed up with a group of visitors, she was about to launch into her usual explanation about the penguins when she suddenly noticed Marlene in the same habitat. She was slightly confused for a moment before suddenly realizing that she now didn't have to worry about finding a different place to keep her while Maurice dealt with the cracks in the tank.

So, she shrugged, turning towards the crowd and melding together her usual speeches about the penguins and Marlene while also explaining about the repairs being done.

"Good, she's gone. Let's get Marlene down into the HQ while no one's looking." said Skipper.

However, Marlene was starting to get really into her routine, doing flips and making a show of herself.

"Marlene, stop! I told you not to draw attention to yourself!" Skipper yelled.

Unfortunately, her antics drew a group of people over to the habitat, and the penguins were forced to return to their cute and cuddly routine. However, since the humans wouldn't leave, Skipper was forced to hiss to Marlene what he wanted to say.

"Marlene! Stop this right now or I'm kicking you out of here!"

Thankfully, Marlene heard that and immediately stopped, disappointing the people as they began walking off. Skipper took the opportunity to start roughly pushing Marlene towards the hatch.

"Make yourself at home. And please, don't come out until the humans leave. We have some things we need to discuss."

Despite Marlene's protests, Skipper threw open the hatch and tossed Marlene down there, before shutting it again. The other three penguins looked at Skipper confused, forcing the commander to take action.

"What are you all standing around for? Get back to the cute and cuddly, men!"

* * *

><p>After a long time of Marlene having to wait inside the HQ for the zoo to close, the penguins finally hopped down the ladder, only for Skipper to quickly make his way over to her and point an accusing flipper in her face.<p>

"What was that all about, Marlene? You almost blew our cover!"

Marlene stared at the flipper for a few seconds before pushing it aside and speaking.

"Hey, I can't help it if I get really into swimming. I'm an otter, just in case you haven't noticed! Besides, what's the big deal anyway?"

Skipper was about to answer before Kowalski stepped in front of him, placing both flippers on his shoulders.

"I think it would be a pretty good idea if you went outside to cool off for a bit. I'll handle the rest of this."

Skipper opened his beak to argue before realizing Kowalski had a point.

"All right. I'll be topside if you need me. And please, make sure she doesn't touch anything classified."

Kowalski nodded, and Skipper made his way over to the ladder, hopping up it and closing the hatch behind him.

"So, would you mind explaining to me what Skipper's deal is, Kowalski?" asked Marlene, looking at the analyst expectantly.

"Well, um…let's just say that Skipper doesn't like being overshadowed by someone else."

Marlene curiosity was piqued at hearing about this, but she tried her best to hide it, adopting a sarcastic attitude.

"Really?"

"Now, don't get me wrong, Marlene. Skipper has always been all about the team. He wouldn't be commander otherwise. But whenever, say, another team happens to be better at something than we are, he can't take it. He has to do something with us that is better in everyone else's eyes than what the other team does. But that's just an example."

Marlene paused as she tried to comprehend what Kowalski just said.

"Wow, that's something. I certainly didn't expect Skipper to be a show-off type of penguin."

"I wouldn't say show-off, Marlene. I would say he's more along the lines of prideful. As I've said before, he's always looked out for us, through thick and thin."

Marlene shrugged.

"Fair enough. I'll believe you, Kowalski. Anyway, do you guys want to do something fun?"

The mood in the room noticeably brightened, with Private the first to speak up.

"Ooh, I've got an idea! Why don't we watch some of the telly? There's a special episode of the Lunacorns on!"

Instead of everyone agreeing instantly, Rico pretended to retch, while Kowalski looked at Private, trying to figure out the best way to refuse while not upsetting the young penguin.

"Look, Private, while I'm not going to stop you if you want to watch your little show, I think the rest of us would like to do something that's a little more in our…ahem…age range?"

Unfortunately for the analyst, Private was still pretty disappointed at being rejected. However, Marlene suddenly spoke up.

"I'll watch it with you, Private."

Both Rico and Kowalski looked at Marlene with shocked expressions on their faces, earning the two of them glares from the otter.

"Oh come on, you guys! Watching Lunacorns can't be that bad for you two."

"Actually, I beg to differ, at least in Rico's case. With the constant need for wanton destruction going on in his psychotic mind, the cute and mushy content in shows like the Lunacorns would make Rico violently ill." said Kowalski.

Marlene was noticeably weirded out, but she shrugged it off and turned towards Kowalski.

"So, what about you, Kowalski? I hope you have a good enough excuse to chicken out, because I won't take no for an answer."

Kowalski looked at Marlene and Private nervously, desperately trying to think of an excuse to get out of watching the show. He had no experiments he could work on, and he couldn't just leave considering he had to watch everyone while Skipper was out.

Reluctantly, he sighed, defeated.

"Alright, I suppose I'll join you guys."

Private beamed now that he had some company at the TV. The three of them walked over to the television and turned it on, sitting down in front of it while Rico evacuated the area as quickly as he could, choosing to keep his attention on combing Miss Perky's hair.

As the three of them watched the show, Marlene decided to have some fun with Rico and Kowalski, turning towards Private.

"So Private, what can you tell me about this show? I've never heard of the Lunacorns before."

Kowalski's eyes widened in fear as he immediately realized what Marlene was about to do. However, it was too late for the analyst to intervene, as Private immediately launched into a long winded explanation of practically everything that had to do with the Lunacorns.

Rico shot out of the room like a rocket, and all they could hear over Private's talking was the sound of Rico actually retching. Kowalski, meanwhile, desperately tried to cover his earholes, wanting to block out Private's yammering, but it was no use, and he was forced to endure it, grumbling the whole time. Thankfully, Private was still engrossed in his explanations, so he had no idea what was going on around him.

* * *

><p>Skipper finally returned not too long after Private finished talking. As he looked around, he saw Rico slumped over the table with a dazed look on his face and some puke dribbling down the side of his beak, while Kowalski was in the fetal position, nervously rocking back and forth. He looked over at Marlene, who appeared to be the only sane one in the room besides Private.<p>

"What happened here?" he asked, confused.

"Oh, it was just a small prank. Nothing to worry about." said Marlene, smiling.

Skipper looked at Marlene weirdly for a few seconds, before walking over to Kowalski and helping him up to his feet.

"Come on, soldier. Up and at 'em!"

"Is…is it over?" asked Kowalski, paranoid.

Skipper stared at Kowalski for a few seconds before doing the first thing he could think of, which was to slap his second-in-command.

"Thank you, sir. I needed that."

Skipper nodded before walking over to where Rico was sitting, bringing the manic penguin back to his senses as well.

Once everyone was back to normal, they all focused their attention on Skipper, as it appeared that the commander had something he wanted to say. However, instead of speaking to everyone, he turned towards Marlene.

"Hey Marlene, I just wanted to apologize for the way I was acting this afternoon. I'm sure Kowalski mentioned it to you already, but I can go a bit overboard with things sometimes."

"Oh, it's no problem, Skipper. You're a great commander, even if your expectations can be a bit overblown."

Skipper nervously cleared his throat as he tried to hide his slight blush.

"Now that that is over with, it's getting late, so it's time for bed everyone. I want you all up bright and early for our daily training sessions!"

The other three penguins saluted before hopping into their beds along the wall. However, before Skipper could go to bed as well, Marlene suddenly spoke up.

"Hey Skipper, what about me? Where am I gonna sleep?"

Skipper paused as he thought about what to do. He looked around the room, trying to see if there was a good place she could sleep, but nothing worked out.

"I guess I could share some space with you in my bed."

Marlene was slightly taken aback, not expecting someone like Skipper to want to go that far.

"Wow, Skipper, that's so unlike you."

Skipper sighed, pointing his flipper at his bed.

"Just get in. I don't want to do it, but there isn't really any other choice."

Marlene shrugged before hopping into Skipper's bed, the penguin commander slipping in next to her.

* * *

><p>The next day, not long after Marlene and the penguins woke up, the otter came up topside to find that the tank in her habitat was filled up again, and the signs were all gone.<p>

"Oh hey, it looks like they've finally fixed my habitat!" she said as the penguins came up the ladder.

"That's good. Now things can finally get back to normal." said Skipper.

Marlene waved goodbye to the penguins as she began heading back towards her habitat, only for Private to walk in front of her.

"I had loads of fun last night, Marlene. I hope we can do this again sometime."

"Me too, Private. Me too."

She gave Private a hug, and as she walked off, Skipper looked at her disappearing form, regretting his decision to lie about his reasons for sharing beds with her.

* * *

><p>In case anyone's curious, the last chunk of the story was a shoutout to all of the Skilene supporters out there. Not only that, it was also a bit of a preview for the next Marlene chapter. I won't tell you what it's about, though.<p> 


	10. Mini-Golf (Private)

**Chapter 10 – Mini-Golf (Private's Story)**

It was another beautiful day in the zoo. Fortunately for all of the animals, the zoo was closed for the weekend, so they were able to get to enjoy the nice weather for a change without having to worry about keeping the humans entertained.

The penguins, however, weren't actually enjoying said weather. All of the penguins except for Skipper wanted to have the day for free time, but the commander wasn't having any of it.

"We've got to be prepared for anything, men. We can't risk skipping morning exercises, and that's final!"

The other three penguins groaned before jumping into the water. As they swam laps around the habitat, Skipper was looking over them, making sure that they were giving it their all.

"Come on, put your backs into it! I don't want to see any of that pretending to swim bullhonkey!"

After a while, Skipper finally let them come back up, and the other three penguins slowly crawled their way back onto the fake ice floe. As they caught their breaths, Kowalski looked up at Skipper to point something out that crossed his mind.

"That was definitely at a much faster pace than what you usually put us through, Skipper."

"Can't be too careful, Kowalski. Alright men, you're all dismissed."

Kowalski, Private and Rico weakly celebrated before they all collapsed to the ground.

* * *

><p>A little while later, the penguins were all scattered around their HQ, enjoying the free day in their own ways.<p>

Rico chose to spend time with Ms. Perky, brushing her hair and just being generally affectionate towards her.

Skipper was sitting at the table not too far away from Rico, poring over some plans for future missions. However, he couldn't really keep his full attention on his work considering he had to listen to Rico fawn over Ms. Perky. Even though he was quite used to the way Rico acted with his psychotic mind, it still felt awkward to the commander when Rico starts getting 'touchy-feely' with her.

Private and Kowalski, however, had the same idea with how they decided to spend the day. Actually, Kowalski wanted to spend some more time in his lab, but Skipper was having none of it, wanting him to 'get some sun for once in your life'.

So, Kowalski and Private were lounging on lawn chairs right outside of the HQ.

"Man K'walski, this is the life, isn't it?"

The analyst initially didn't agree with Private's sentiment, but as the seconds wore on, he began to realize that it was actually pretty nice outside, smiling as he stared at the clouds.

"Yes Private, this is definitely something."

The two of them continued to rest for a while, until Kowalski suddenly spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He sat up and raised his sunglasses (which they were both wearing) so that he could easily see what it was.

"Hey Private? Am I seeing things, or is there a featureless brown blob headed our way?"

Private sat up, confused. He took off his sunglasses and stared in the same direction Kowalski was. By the time he did so, the figure was close enough so that Private could see some of the features. And when he saw the figure's face, he knew exactly who was coming.

"Oh no, not him again…"

Kowalski turned towards Private, having not recognized the figure at the moment.

"You know who that is?"

Private sighed, clutching a flipper to his head as he felt a headache coming on.

"I know that face anywhere. It's the Amarillo Kid."

Private suddenly heard a spitting noise coming from behind him. He turned around and saw Kowalski coughing, a nearly empty glass of water in his flipper.

"Sorry…drank that too fast."

Private chose not to reply, as the Amarillo Kid had finally made it to the fence separating him from the habitat.

"What do you want, Kid?" asked Private.

He began making his way over to the armadillo, intending to kick him out, but he stopped in his tracks when the Amarillo Kid held his hands up in front of him.

"Now hold on there, Mr. Tux. I've got no quarrel with you today. In fact, I wanted to hopefully start over with you, and we can be friends."

Private was noticeably surprised to hear this coming from the armadillo. However, his eyes returned to their steely gaze when he realized the possibility that he was being lead on.

"How do I know you're not just going to go back to being how you were before?"

The Amarillo Kid sighed before replying.

"After you defeated me the last time I was here, I had to do a little soul searching. I finally realized that it just isn't worth focusing on trying to beat you. I've got better things I can do with my life. So, I figured that it would be a good idea for us to try to be friends."

By this point, Skipper and Rico had joined the rest of the group, wondering what all of the commotion was. Private opened his beak to answer, but the Amarillo Kid held up a claw as he spoke up again.

"After one more round of mini-golf."

Kowalski did yet another spit take, spraying water all over Rico, who glared at the analyst.

"I really shouldn't be drinking when these kinds of things happen. Sorry."

Private cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention before turning back towards the Amarillo Kid.

"This doesn't really make much sense. You're going on about not wanting to focus your life on beating me, and now you want to play another round?"

"Hey, let me explain! I would just like one more chance to take you on. If I beat you, great! If not, life goes on. Simply put, this would just be for fun."

Private paused as he thought about whether he should take the Amarillo Kid's offer.

"I'll be right with you in a second. I have to discuss this with my team."

The Kid nodded, and the four penguins huddled up.

"I don't like this, Private. Remember what he did last time? He wired the HQ to blow up!" said Skipper, sneaking a peek back at the Amarillo Kid to make sure he wouldn't do it again.

"I don't know, Skippah. He seems pretty genuine to me."

"Oh, you poor, naïve fool. That's just what he wants you to think!"

Private shook his head, not wanting to believe he was wrong about the Amarillo Kid. But before he could reply, Skipper suddenly turned to face Rico.

"Rico, head down into the HQ and check to see if there are any bombs around. We'll expose this chump no matter what it takes."

"Okay!" said Rico gleefully, as he hopped down the hatch.

A little while later, Rico popped back topside and rejoined the team.

"So, is there anything down there?" asked Skipper.

Rico vigorously shook his head, and Private couldn't resist giving Skipper an "I told you so" look.

"Alright Private, you win. You make your own decision on this."

Private paused, having made his decision. He walked over to the Amarillo Kid, reaching behind his back and putting his red bowtie on his chest.

"You're on."

The Amarillo Kid chuckled.

"That's good news. I'll give you some time to get ready."

Private nodded, and the penguins hopped back down into the HQ.

* * *

><p>The next few minutes were silent inside the HQ, as Private had his putter in his flippers, getting himself ready for the match.<p>

However, the silence was broken, as Kowalski decided to voice his concerns to Private.

"Are you certain that you want to do this, Private? I'm sure that you have your reasons to trust him, but I don't really follow those same kinds of thoughts."

Private sighed.

"Yes K'walski, I trust him. Now will you please leave me alone? I need to get ready."

Kowalski spluttered, trying to form a coherent sentence to try to convince Private of the Amarillo Kid not being as trustworthy as originally thought.

"Look, if it'll make you and Skippah happy, you can be my eyes and ears while I'm busy with the match. Make sure he doesn't do anything he shouldn't."

Kowalski reluctantly nodded, and Private returned to his preparations while Kowalski went over to sit next to Skipper, whispering so that they wouldn't be heard.

"Skipper, I think we need to have a plan in case something goes wrong during Private's game."

"Agreed. What do you have in mind?"

Kowalski thought for a second before replying.

"If the Amarillo Kid doesn't play by the rules, we'll sic Rico on him. I'm sure that'll teach him a lesson."

"Great idea, Kowalski!" Skipper yelled, forcing Kowalski to shush him as the other two penguins gave him a weird look.

"I'll discuss it with Rico once the match starts."

Skipper nodded, and the room fell silent once again, that is until the hatch opened, and the Amarillo Kid poked his head through the opening.

"It's time. Are you ready, Mr. Tux?"

Private looked up at the armadillo and nodded. He made his way over towards the ladder and hopped his way up; with the rest of the penguins following close behind.

* * *

><p>When all of the penguins made their way topside, they were surprised to see some of the animals come over to watch, including Julien, who was in front of the crowd doing his whispery announcer voice.<p>

"Wow, didn't expect this many of the guys to show up." said Skipper.

Private was slightly nervous at seeing how many animals were there, but he steeled his nerves as the penguins walked over to the start of the course.

When they finally arrived, they found that the Amarillo Kid was already there, stretching out as his ball was already placed on the ground in front of him.

"You ready to go, Mr. Tux? I'm gonna be giving it my all!"

Private nodded, although he wondered exactly how much effort he was giving last time considering he barely managed to beat him.

The Amarillo Kid smiled before he got into position, the crowd quieting down as he prepared to take the shot.

Eventually, he finally swung and hit the ball, sending it flying as it curved around a track along the wall, made a u-turn and went straight into the hole.

The Amarillo Kid fist pumped, happy that his round was starting off well.

"Looks like you're gonna have to be really good if you're gonna beat me. I'm on my A-game today."

Private was a little bit nervous, knowing that he wasn't going to have any room for error, but he took a breath to calm himself down as he prepared to take his shot.

The path his shot took somewhat deviated from the Kid's shot, but it still went into the hole all the same.

"I'm not done yet." said Private as he went over to collect his ball.

The Amarillo Kid grumbled, slightly annoyed that Private was keeping up with him, but happy as well that he was going to be given a good fight from the young penguin.

* * *

><p>Over the next couple holes, Private and the Amarillo Kid managed to get hole-in-one after hole-in-one, impressing the crowd with the moves they make during each increasingly complex hole.<p>

However, when they reached Hole 5, things began to get interesting.

The Amarillo Kid was preparing to take his shot, when a grasshopper suddenly jumped in front of the ball. Caught off guard, his shot was off target. However, by a sheer stroke of luck, the ball managed to land a few feet from the hole after more bounces than the crowd could count.

Private was admittedly surprised to see the Kid's concentration break like that. However, before he could plan a strategy around that, his thoughts were interrupted by a call from the crowd.

"Come on Private, you can do it! You can take the lead!" yelled Skipper.

Unfortunately, it didn't pan out like Skipper thought, as the pressure lead to Private's shot being just off of the mark, missing the hole by inches.

This earned Skipper a glare from the Private, as well as a scolding from Kowalski.

"This is why spectators at golf games are usually supposed to be quiet."

Skipper gave Kowalski a sarcastic look, but in his mind he knew that he probably shouldn't have done that, and he resolved to keep quiet somehow.

* * *

><p>The next three holes were uneventful, as Private and the Amarillo Kid also managed to pull off hole-in-ones on them as well.<p>

Finally, they managed to make it to the final hole, and as Private took a look at it, his mind was going in circles trying to figure out how the whole thing worked.

The final hole was filled with sharp turns, loops, curves along walls…pretty much any kind of obstacle ever created in mini-golf was in this hole.

"Wow, you really went all out on this one, didn't you?"

The Amarillo Kid chuckled.

"Well, I wanted to make this one interesting for our last hurrah. Don't you think this works out pretty good?"

Private gave the Kid a confused look.

"To be honest, I'm not sure where the hole begins and ends."

The Kid sighed.

"Alright, I'll explain it to you just this once. So you'd better be listening."

As Private listened intently, the Amarillo Kid launched into an explanation about the path that the ball would take to get to where the hole was, which turned out to be quite a distance away. There was also a lot of steps in the process, so Private was only really able to remember some of it.

But, as the Amarillo Kid began making his way back to the beginning of the hole, Private figured he might as well just wing it and hope that his shot makes it through the entire path.

"So, do you understand where everything is, then?"

Private nodded, and the Amarillo Kid smiled, glad that he wouldn't have to explain it again.

"Alright, good. I'm going first on this one, so let me go ahead and take my shot."

The crowd fell silent once again, allowing the Amarillo Kid to focus fully on his shot. The only thing everyone could hear (besides Julien's whispery commentary) was the Amarillo Kid slowly breathing in and out.

Eventually, he hit the ball, and it flew through the twisting turns of the course. It was moving around so much, even Private lost sight of it a few times. A couple of minutes later, though, it finally popped out at the end of the track, and it slowly inched its way towards the hole.

The Amarillo Kid watched with bated breath, until it finally dropped in. He wildly began to celebrate, surprised that he managed to pull off a hole-in-one on a course that he specifically designed to be as difficult as humanly possible to get a low score on.

"Well, it all comes down to this, Mr. Tux. You've gotta get a hole-in-one to stay in the game."

Private gulped, not sure if even he with his considerable talent would be able to pull something like that off. But before he could even begin preparing to take the shot, Kowalski walked over, placing both flippers on Private's shoulders.

"Come on Private, you can do it. Just concentrate. You've pulled this kind of stunt off before."

"But K'walski, the last hole that other time wasn't nearly as complex as this one!"

The analyst looked over at the track. He could see Private's point, but he pushed that thought to the back of his mind, intending to try to convince Private he could still pull it off.

"Don't worry about the length, Private. You're one of the best mini-golf players in the city! The Amarillo Kid is just as good as you, and he managed to pull it off!"

Private paused, considering what Kowalski said. Finally, he smiled.

"Thanks for that, K'walski."

Kowalski gave Private a pat on the shoulder before returning to his spot in the crowd.

Private slowly made his way over to the ball, his heart beating in his chest as he prepared to take the biggest shot of his mini-golf career.

As he stood over his ball, slowly breathing in and out to calm himself down, he visualized the path that the ball would take to the hole. In his head, he quickly estimated the amount of force he would need to put on the ball to make it through the entire course and adjusted his stance accordingly.

"Here goes nothing." he said to himself, as he closed his eyes and smoothly hit the ball.

Private kept his eyes closed, unable to watch. He could only listen as the ball made its way through the track. Eventually, when Private was starting to believe it would never end, the ball hit the ground, and Private waited for the sound of the ball going into the hole.

But it never came, and Private opened his eyes to find the ball stopped just short of the hole.

The celebration didn't start immediately, as everyone knew what happened last time with the ball rolling in a few seconds later thanks to a cricket.

The ball didn't move, though, and the Amarillo Kid took it as a signal that he could finally celebrate. Private was disappointed that he lost, but he was glad that the Kid gave him a clean match, and he also was happy that he got a real battle from the armadillo.

So, as the Kid celebrated, Private walked over to him, smiling as he held out a flipper.

"Congrats, Amarillo Kid. You deserve this victory."

The Amarillo Kid paused in his celebrations, looking down at Private slightly warily. But after a few seconds, he gladly accepted Private's handshake offer, giving the young penguin a firm shake.

"It was a hard fought match. I'm glad that we can finally be friends now, Mr. Tux."

"Please, call me Private."

The Amarillo Kid smiled as Private took his bowtie off and threw it away.

"Sure thing…Private."


	11. Snacks (Julien)

**Chapter 11 – Snacks (Julien's Story)**

It was another beautiful day at the zoo, and the penguins, for once, decided to enjoy it by taking a walk around the zoo. Unfortunately, Kowalski seemed to be the only one really reluctant to be joining them, considering he just had a scientific breakthrough right before he was pulled out of the lab by the commander.

As they continued to walk, Skipper breathed in, before suddenly coughing thanks to the less than clean air in New York.

"Man, that city air really gets to you sometimes." he said as he cleared his throat.

"That's what pollution can do to people, Skipper." said Kowalski.

Skipper gave Kowalski a look, not quite grasping the connection.

"Right…anyway, let's keep moving. I think we should be getting back to the HQ soon."

However, just as they were about to reach their home, the peace and quiet was shattered, as a loud voice came from the lemur habitat.

"Maurice! Where is de king's royal smoothie? I have been waiting for it for two whole minutes!"

"Coming, your majesty!"

Annoyed at having the peace ruined, Skipper face palmed.

"Oh, for the love of…of course it has to be Ringtail who ruins the moment!"

Skipper began making his way over to the habitat, intending to give the lemur a piece of his mind, but Kowalski got in front of him.

"Listen Skipper, let's let cooler heads prevail here. I'm not sure if you're even going to be able to get through to someone like him!"

Skipper looked at his second-in-command, unconvinced.

"Oh, really? I seem to remember getting through to him pretty well after that party he had a few weeks ago."

"Yeah, and you smashed his tape player as well!" said Private.

"Thank you for the input, Private, but I've got this under control."

Skipper turned back towards Kowalski and waited for the analyst to continue to try to argue his point. None came, though, and the commander adopted a smug look, knowing that he won the argument.

"Nothing to say, Kowalski? Alright, now if you'll excuse me, I've got a lemur to yell at."

Skipper once again attempted to walk past Kowalski and enter the lemur habitat, but he was stopped again.

"What is it, Kowalski? I would kind of like to get this over with so we can get back to the HQ!"

Kowalski sighed before replying.

"Are you sure yelling at Julien is going to do anything? It might be a better idea to do something else to him so that you can show him that you mean business."

Skipper paused as he thought about what Kowalski said.

"You know, that's not a bad idea. I have just the plan for Ringtail as well."

"Really? I didn't expect you to come up with something that quickly. What is it?"

However, instead of replying, Skipper whispered something in Rico's ear. Once the weapons expert nodded giddily, Skipper made his way over to the fence and hopped over it, forcing the rest of the penguins to run to keep up with him.

* * *

><p>Inside the lemur habitat, Julien was once again lounging on his throne, attempting to find a comfortable position, while Maurice was busy making a mango smoothie for the king. As for Mort, he was trying to help Maurice with the smoothie, but considering the fact that their stock of mangoes were locked up tight, there wasn't much the mouse lemur could do. And even then, Maurice would lightly kick him away every time he tried to ask, as he was starting to get tired of Mort's constant interruptions.<p>

"Maurice! What is taking you so long? De king is getting to be mighty thirsty!"

The stress of getting the smoothie right was starting to get to Maurice, and while he adopted his normal voice when speaking to Julien, in his mind he wanted nothing more than to leave and never come back. However, he knew that Julien wouldn't be able to function properly without him (and Mort would only make things worse), so he reluctantly focused back on the task at hand.

Unfortunately, his progress was once again interrupted, as he saw the penguins walking up to them. Maurice was slightly confused, wondering what the penguins were doing inside their habitat, but before he could ask, Julien suddenly stood up in his throne, raising his hands in the air.

"Hello, penguins! I was wondering where you three were. Now, would you mind telling Maurice to be getting on with it with my smoothie? I have been waiting for so long!"

Skipper stepped forward.

"Can it, Ringtail! I am getting really sick of your loud mouth. Please, just shut up for once in your life!"

Julien opened his mouth to retort, but Skipper held up his flipper, silencing the king.

"I know what you're about to say, and yes, I realize that I can't just tell you to shut up and you'll do it. This is why I have a job for you to do. We're low on snacks, so I want you to head out to the city and get some for us."

"And what makes you think I would do dis silly task for you?" asked Julien, giving Skipper a condescending look.

Instead of replying, Skipper turned towards Rico.

"Rico? Go grab that blender for me."

Rico nodded and slid over to where Maurice was, pushing him out of the way and shutting the blender off. As he reached for the cord to unplug it, Julien hopped down from his throne.

"Maurice! Mort! Stop him from taking my smoothie maker!"

Both lemurs ran over and attempted to separate Rico from the blender, but they were thrown off quite easily due to the strength of the weapons expert. Finally, Rico managed to unplug the blender and grab it, quickly running back to the rest of the team, brandishing it over his head like a trophy.

"Until you come back to us with a suitable amount of snacks, we're gonna be hanging on to your blender here." said Skipper.

"No, you cannot be doing this to me! How am I to be making it without my smoothies?"

"You'll manage. Besides, Maurice and Mort are going with you as well. I know better than to send you out by yourself. Also, I'm sending Rico along to keep an eye out on you three. I don't want any funny business."

"And what happens if we do something wrong?" asked Maurice.

Rather than reply, Rico simply formed a fist with one of his flippers and hit it into his other flipper menacingly.

"Oh…I see."

As Skipper began walking away, he turned back around to say one more thing.

"Get to it, boys. I'm sure you don't want to waste any time if you want your blender back soon."

Rico handed the blender over to Private, who bobbled it for a second before finally getting a good grip on it. As Kowalski, Private and Skipper began heading back towards the HQ, Kowalski caught up to Skipper, intending to ask him something.

"Skipper, are you sure this is wise? I'm sure the lemur's intentions will be good with Rico breathing down their necks, but they aren't exactly the most competent group of animals you'll see."

"And your point is?" asked Skipper, looking at Kowalski expectantly. When no answer came, he continued on.

"Look, I'm fully aware that there probably isn't much of a chance that they'll complete the mission satisfactorily. Frankly, I'm more looking forward to the beat down Rico will most likely give them. God knows at least Ringtail deserves it."

"Well, what about Maurice and Mort?"

"Collateral damage. I'm not gonna be there to stop him, so I doubt he's gonna stop at just Ringtail, considering his psychotic disposition."

Kowalski fell back, staring at the back of Skipper's head as he wondered just what has gotten into his commander all of a sudden.

* * *

><p>Back with Rico and the lemurs, the weapons expert has led them to their car and hopped into the driver's seat, looking expectantly at the three of them.<p>

"Ge' in." he said, pointing towards the seats around him.

"Um, are you sure it's safe in there?" asked Maurice, eyeing the car like it was about to attack them.

"Maurice is right for once! Why should we be going anywhere in that car? It looks very dangerous." said Julien.

Rico, however, was having none of it. He jumped back out of the car before roughly grabbing the lemurs one at a time and putting them into the car, locking their seatbelts tight so that they couldn't get away.

Julien, admittedly, was the only one who was still trying to get away, considering Maurice was busy trying to keep his mind off of the impending travel, while Mort was oblivious as always.

Unfortunately, they didn't have any real time to prepare, as Rico immediately slammed his foot on the gas pedal, sending the car shooting off like a rocket. The last thing anyone in the zoo heard before they left was Julien's screaming.

* * *

><p>After a breakneck journey through the city, Rico and the lemurs finally came to a stop in front of Bailey's. Rico parked the car off to the side and hopped out, only to see Julien and Maurice barely able to hold in their lunch.<p>

"Ugh, remind me never to get in the car when Rico is driving." said Maurice.

"Agreed. Dat was de worst feeling I have ever experienced."

Mort, meanwhile, was busy staring into space, no doubt having no idea where he was at the moment.

After finally recovering, the lemurs all unbuckled themselves before joining Rico, who was up against the corner of the building surveying the front of Bailey's.

Not realizing the situation they were in, Julien walked up to where Rico was and loudly asked a question, causing the weapons expert to jump.

"Hey, crazy penguin! When are we gonna get dis done so dat I can get my smoothie maker back?"

Julien was only met with a loud shush from Rico before he pushed the three lemurs up against the wall.

"Stay 'ere." he said, giving them a threatening look before heading around the corner.

The three lemurs waited patiently (somehow) for Rico to return, but before the weapons expert got back, Mort suddenly wandered off, having noticed something sparkly in a pile of trash.

When Rico finally returned from the front of the store, he was confused, as he only found two out of the three lemurs in front of him.

"Uh…wher' Mor'?"

"Who?" asked Julien.

Rico began spouting a string of gibberish, waving his flippers around as he tried to describe the mouse lemur to Julien, who still didn't get what he was talking about. Thankfully, Maurice was there to figure it out, as he turned around and saw that Mort wasn't there. He sighed heavily.

"Not again."

He began calling Mort's name, but thankfully he didn't have to look for long, as Mort's head popped out of the pile of garbage he was currently digging through.

"I am here!"

Maurice made a disgusted face before speaking up again.

"Man, get back over here!"

Mort happily ran back over to the group, but everyone began to notice the smell emanating from the small lemur, forcing Rico to take action. He put his flipper out in front of him as Mort attempted to walk towards the door, shaking his head before pointing towards the car.

"You stink!"

Mort just stared at Rico blankly, not knowing what he was talking about. Rico sighed, before gingerly picking up Mort and placing him back in the car, buckling him back up to make sure he wouldn't leave again.

Eventually, Rico returned to the remaining two lemurs, quickly checking himself if he got any of Mort's smell on him. Thankfully, he was still pretty clean, so he led Julien and Maurice to where they keep the barrels that they use for carrying the snacks.

The lemurs obviously had no idea what to do with them, so Rico quickly pantomimed instructions for them. Somehow understanding Rico's instructions, both Maurice and Julien went to one of the barrels and began pushing them towards the front of the store, although Julien was complaining about it the whole time.

"Ugh, I cannot believe that I have to be pushing these circular containers around! These are heavy!"

This earned him another shush from Rico, and Julien reluctantly became quiet thanks to the intimidating look the weapons expert gave him.

The group eventually turned around the corner, and managed to get inside the Snackatarium without being spotted.

* * *

><p>When they finally got inside, the three animals moved towards the side of the store next to more barrels that they could blend in with.<p>

Both Julien and Maurice looked at Rico, trying their best not to freak out. The weapons expert put a flipper in front of his face for a few seconds before pointing towards the ground, signaling for them to stay there and be quiet.

The two lemurs traded nervous looks as Rico slid over to the cashier and knocked him out. He quickly hopped off of the register and returned to the lemurs, gesturing for them to head towards the shelves.

However, as Julien and Maurice managed to push the barrels towards the shelves, they looked up at the shelves and found them to be much taller than what they originally saw when near the front of the store. Julien turned towards Rico, giving the crazy penguin a look of contempt.

"Nuh-uh. I am not climbing up dat ting. My royal status does not include climbing up tall tings."

Rico stared at him for a few seconds, annoyed, before roughly grabbing Julien and kicking him upwards, sending the lemur king flying. Thankfully, the store was empty; otherwise Julien's screaming would bring unneeded attention.

Finally, Julien's upward momentum began to slow down, and he began to drop, somehow landing right on the top shelf. Surprised that he wasn't splattered on the floor, Julien laughed, looking down from the top shelf towards Rico and Maurice.

"I have made it! De Sky Spirits, dey have granted me de power of flying!"

Rico ignored Julien, choosing to push one of the barrels towards the shelf Julien was on before attempting to pantomime telling Julien to start pushing snacks off of the shelf.

Unfortunately, Julien couldn't understand what Rico was saying, so Maurice was forced to translate.

"I think he wants you to start pushing some of the snacks into the barrel, your majesty."

Rico then said something else before smacking his fist into his flipper again.

"Oh, and don't eat anything. He won't be happy if you do." said Maurice.

Julien thankfully understood, and he began pushing snacks off of the shelf. Some of them didn't make it into the barrel, but thankfully none of them broke, so Rico was able to put them back on the bottom shelf.

As Julien began slowly working his way down the shelf, Maurice just stood there, not knowing what to do. This led to Rico walking over to him, staring him down for a few seconds before pointing towards the shelf across from Julien's. The weapons expert held out his foot for emphasis, but Maurice backed off.

"No need for that. I know what I need to do."

Maurice began climbing up the shelves as Rico pushed the other barrel under his shelf.

Rico watched as the two lemurs were filling the barrels with snacks, mildly impressed that the two managed to do this without any real issues. Having Mort wait outside was probably a good idea, too. Although he was disappointed that he wouldn't get to beat them up, he was still pretty excited to have some more food in stock.

Finally, the lemurs managed to finish cleaning out the two shelves, and Rico signaled for them to push the barrels towards the front door. Unfortunately, with the added weight of the snacks, this task proved to be a little difficult for the lemurs.

Eventually, they managed to reach the front door. Rico told the lemurs to wait, as he slid back over to the cashier, spitting up the cash that they needed to pay for it.

Suddenly, just as Rico was counting out the money, the cashier began to wake up. Rico heard the cashier's groans and immediately went into action, coughing up a smoke bomb before they would be seen.

Rico quickly slid over to where the lemurs were and wildly signaled for them to get out of there, somehow managing to help the two of them push the barrels out of the store and around the corner to where the car still was. Mort was still there, too, sitting quietly, although he somehow managed to get the seatbelt wrapped around his head.

Rico shrugged, thinking that as long as the mouse lemur was still there, there wasn't a big problem. He began helping the lemurs load the snacks into the car before they all jumped in, and he drove off, thankfully at a slower speed to avoid losing any snacks.

* * *

><p>When Rico and the lemurs finally returned to the zoo and parked in the normal spot, the three of them were surprised to find Skipper, Kowalski and Private standing right there to meet them.<p>

"What are you guys doing out here? I thought you were keeping an eye on our smoothie maker." said Maurice.

"Oh, I figured judging from our past snack runs, that you guys would probably have been back by now, so we decided to meet you guys out here." said Skipper.

"We can help you guys with unloading all of the snacks as well!" said Private, smiling.

Skipper paused as he looked over at Rico, who had his normal dumb look on his face.

"So Rico, how'd it go? These lemurs cause any trouble?"

Rico vigorously shook his head before replying.

"It wen' a'ight."

Skipper was pleasantly surprised to hear this coming from the weapons expert.

"Well, I'm actually pretty impressed. I didn't expect you guys to manage to pull this off."

Skipper turned towards Private.

"Private? Go fetch that blender for me, if you don't mind."

Private saluted before sliding off, returning a few minutes later with said blender, handing it off to Maurice.

Skipper smiled, happy that something might have come out of this plan, before his face fell as a foul odor pervaded through the area. He looked around, confused, before finally spotting Mort still in the car, still covered in grime.

"Oh my god, Mort, you reek!"

Skipper quickly rushed over and released Mort from his seatbelt, holding his beak closed as he gingerly carried the mouse lemur and threw him at Julien, who bobbled and dropped him.

"Please leave, now! And don't ever come back until you two get Sad Eyes clean again! God, that smell was horrible. And now we have to clean it out of the car!"

Skipper sighed in disgust, as the penguins quickly tried to remove all of the snacks before the smell contaminates them. As for the lemurs, they headed back to their habitat, but not before Maurice decided to say something.

"Well now, that wasn't so bad, was it, you guys?"

"Are you kidding me? Dat was terrible! I never want to do dat ever again!"

Julien crossed his arms, huffing. However, Mort was continually trying to give Julien a hug to cheer him up, which forced the king to abandon it so that he could prevent Mort from touching him.

Maurice couldn't help but chuckle a bit as they finally returned to the lemur habitat. Unfortunately, they didn't have the ability to give Mort a bath themselves, so they all had to endure the smell throughout the night until Alice came to clean him up.


	12. Banned (Kowalski)

**Chapter 12 – Banned (Kowalski's Story)**

Another day dawned on the Central Park Zoo, and Skipper was the first to wake up, just as he as always done. However, when he hopped out of his bed and prepared to wake the other penguins up, he found that one of the beds was empty, and it was the one that usually belonged to Kowalski.

Confused, he walked back over to the bed and shook Private awake. Once the young penguin hopped out of his bed and managed to focus his attention, Skipper spoke up.

"Private, have you seen Kowalski? He's not in his bed."

Private didn't answer immediately, as he quickly looked behind him and saw the empty bed. He turned back around to face Skipper, with a surprised look on his face as he replied.

"I don't know, Skippah. I do remember him coming to bed last night."

Unfortunately, that wasn't much help to Skipper, so he quickly racked his brain, trying to remember what happened last night. When he finally remembered, his face lit up in understanding.

"Of course! I had to pull him out of the lab last night so that we could go to bed. And I think I have a good idea of where he is now."

Unsure about what Skipper was talking about, Private decided to follow his commander as he made his way over to Kowalski's lab and opened the door.

When Skipper finally opened the door, Private's ear holes were met with a loud snoring sound coming from inside the lab, and even he could imagine who was making those sounds.

Both Skipper and Private walked in, and they found Kowalski fast asleep, collapsed over a table with different instruments scattered around him.

Annoyed, Skipper decided not to waste any time. He quickly rounded the table to face the sleeping analyst, putting his flippers on his hips.

"Kowalski!"

Kowalski immediately jerked awake, banging his head on a light fixture he was using to illuminate his work in the darkened lab. As he rubbed his head in pain, he finally noticed his commander staring at him with an angry look on his face.

"Uh…good morning, Skipper." he said, nervously chuckling.

Unexpectedly, rather than start to yell, Skipper began pacing in front of Kowalski with his flippers clasped behind his back.

"So tell me, Kowalski. Why did I end up finding you here when you were supposed to be in your bed asleep?"

Kowalski was slightly taken aback by the calm tone Skipper had, but he managed to collect his thoughts to explain himself.

"Listen Skipper, I've been trying to redo the experiment I was doing when you told me to join you on that walk yesterday morning. I was so close to a breakthrough then, and I almost got back to it last night before it was lights out! I couldn't just let it go again and end up having to redo it a third time! I had to finish it!"

Once Kowalski's explanation was finished, Skipper simply stared at him, trying to read what was going through his mind at the moment.

"I did manage to finish it, though." Kowalski said, grabbing a beaker full of a colorful liquid.

Before Kowalski could explain what the liquid was, Skipper held up a flipper, silencing him.

"While I do appreciate the work that you put in to help the rest of the team out, I think that you're starting to spend a little too much time cooped up in that lab. That is why I've decided that you need to spend some more time outside. You're banned from the lab until further notice."

Kowalski's beak dropped.

"B-but Skipper! You can't do that to me!"

"I can and I have. Believe me, Kowalski; it's for your own good."

As Skipper began to head towards the exit, Kowalski stood there for a moment, unable to register being banned from his lab. Just as Skipper reached the door, Kowalski suddenly spoke up.

"What am I gonna do with myself, Skipper?"

"I'm sure you'll find something. Besides, I'm betting Private and Rico will be very happy to be able to spend some more time with you."

Kowalski sighed, defeated. He slowly made his way over to the door, giving one last look at his lab before finally leaving.

By this point of time, Rico had already woken up, so as Kowalski walked into the main room of the HQ, he was met with the weapons expert's stupid grin, as well as Private. The young penguin gave Kowalski a smile, but since he was there when Kowalski was banned, it was a sympathetic smile.

"Don't worry too much about it, K'walski. I'm sure Skippah has a good reason for wanting you to stay out here."

Kowalski sighed.

"I don't know, Private. I suppose Skipper does have a point, though. I have been spending a majority of my time in the lab. Maybe spending some time outside will do some good for me."

As he sat down with Private at the table, Kowalski's expression noticeably brightened as he resolved not to let being banned from the lab get him down.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, it turned out to be much tougher than Kowalski thought. As time passed, the analyst's brain was beginning to go into overdrive, ideas swimming through it.<p>

With each idea that he came up with, he initially planned to go to the lab to test it out, before remembering soon after that he wasn't allowed to use it. He then sighs to himself before returning to what he was originally doing, his expression darkening each time.

Eventually, the amount of ideas in his head was starting to get to him. Every so often, he would glance nervously at the door to the lab, wishing that he would still be able to go inside. It even ended up getting to the point that he debated whether or not to sneak in there.

Desperate, Kowalski walked over to where Skipper was enjoying his cup of coffee. The analyst nervously glanced around the room before finally speaking up.

"Um, Skipper?"

Skipper gave Kowalski a flat stare.

"Do you need something, Kowalski? I'm kind of in the middle of something."

Kowalski didn't immediately reply, unsure if asking him about lifting the restriction on the lab wouldn't just lead to something worse. Finally, he was unable to take it anymore, as all of his pent-up feelings about his predicament spewed out of his beak.

"I can't take it, Skipper! I'm a man of science, and not being able to use all these ideas in my head is starting to drive me mad! Please, I really need to use the lab!"

Skipper stared at Kowalski for a moment before shaking his head.

"Sorry, Kowalski, no can do. You haven't shown me that you can live without being cooped up in that lab for hours on end."

Kowalski's expression deflated after hearing Skipper's refusal. But before he could open his beak to argue, Skipper spoke up once more.

"Why don't you and Private go out for a walk somewhere and clear your head? It seems like you could use it."

Kowalski wasn't really all that interested in taking up Skipper's suggestion, but unfortunately Private was in the area, and he heard Skipper's suggestion quite clearly. The analyst knew he would only end up disappointing Private if he decided not to go, so reluctantly he made his way over to the young penguin, clearing his throat before speaking.

"Um…would you be interested in joining me for a walk around the park, Private?"

"I'd love to, K'walski! Let's go!"

Kowalski couldn't help but smile a bit at Private's relentless enthusiasm. As the two of them made their way up the ladder, the analyst couldn't help but hope that Skipper's suggestion would work out for him despite his initial reservations.

* * *

><p>As Kowalski and Private began their relaxing walk through the park, Kowalski initially didn't feel any different. Frankly, the quiet was starting to depress him a bit, considering most of his time was spent listening to either the sounds that his experiments make or the near constant chatter of the rest of his team. The calmness felt a little constricting to him.<p>

Luckily, Private noticed the look on Kowalski's face, and he decided to voice his concerns.

"Are you alright, K'walski?"

Kowalski jumped a bit, having been roughly jerked out of his thoughts.

"Oh, uh…I'm fine, Private. I was just thinking, that's all."

"Oh? What about?"

Kowalski admittedly didn't want to talk about it, but unfortunately Private didn't catch his subtle hint, so he decided just to go ahead and do it, figuring that trying to drop the subject wasn't worth it.

"I'm just not used to spending so much time outside the lab. I know I've done so before, but that was really only whenever you guys are around. I've never really done this kind of thing myself."

Private paused for a moment as he thought about Kowalski's confession.

"I can understand what you're going through, K'walski. I mean, before you guys found me; I wasn't entirely the most social penguin in the world. Well, it was for a different reason than you, but I'm sure you know what I mean."

"I'm sorry, Private, I'm actually not sure what you mean."

Private paused, not expecting someone like Kowalski to misunderstand his explanation. Still, he didn't let that get to him, and he quickly thought of a way to explain himself a little better.

"Really, all you need to do is get out more often. I'm pretty sure the rest of the animals would love to hang out with you. All you have to do is go to them."

Kowalski admittedly could see Private's point. He was making the whole socializing thing more difficult than he needed it to be. However, he didn't feel like he was ready to try that out yet, so he faced Private, intending to make a suggestion of his own.

"Hey Private, how would you feel about taking a ride in the car?"

Rather than immediately agree, Private gave Kowalski a suspicious look.

"Are you trying to get out of talking to everyone else? You're not gonna get any better at it if you don't try."

Kowalski immediately held up his flippers defensively.

"Of course not, Private! I could just use a little fresh air, and the city would be perfect."

Kowalski was lying through his teeth, but he was somehow able to hide it from Private, who simply nodded, satisfied with the analyst's explanation.

As the two of them headed for the car, Kowalski sighed. He didn't want to have to lie to Private, but he didn't know if he would be able to carry on a conversation with someone without having someone like Skipper to go off of.

* * *

><p>The car ride into the city was completely silent, as neither of the penguins could say anything. Kowalski was staring into space, lost in thought, while Private was trying to concentrate on driving. He was sneaking peeks over at Kowalski any chance he could get, though, trying to read what the analyst had on his mind. However, just like with his original excuse, Kowalski was pretty good at keeping his expression neutral to avoid Private catching on.<p>

Eventually, even Kowalski's resolve was starting to fail him, as the analyst's regret at having to lie to Private was beginning to eat away at him. His expression faltered, and Private noticed pretty easily.

"Is something the matter, K'walski?"

Kowalski didn't speak, as he tried to readopt his neutral expression, but the young penguin saw right through it, and he pulled off into an alley to avoid drawing suspicion from any humans.

When he finally brought the car to a halt, Private immediately wheeled around to face Kowalski, who looked at his teammate worriedly, wondering if he was caught in his lie.

"Come on, K'walski! I'm not as naïve as you think I am! I can tell that something's on your mind."

Private paused to stare at Kowalski for a moment before continuing.

"Now, I don't want to hear any excuses. We're gonna stay right here until you tell me what's going on with you."

Private pulled the keys out of the ignition, holding them tightly in his flipper as he crossed the two of them over his chest, leaning back in his seat as he waited for Kowalski's explanation.

Kowalski was having a very difficult time trying to keep his beak shut. His thoughts swam as he debated whether or not to admit his true feelings to Private.

* * *

><p>Minutes passed as the two penguins sat in the alleyway. Kowalski still was unable to decide what to do, and as much as it went against his character, Private was beginning to get a little annoyed at having to wait this long. He decided that drastic measures needed to be taken if he wanted to get the answer he was looking for, so he sighed as he looked over at Kowalski.<p>

"I didn't want to have to do this, K'walski, but you've left me no choice."

Kowalski was suddenly hit full blast with Private's hypercute, and the analyst immediately broke, bursting into tears.

"I'm sorry, Private! I'm sorry for lying to you!"

Although Private had an idea that Kowalski wasn't entirely truthful with his reasoning when he wanted to take the ride into the city, he was still slightly taken aback.

"K'walski, why? Why would you do something like this?"

The analyst finally managed to calm down, and he explained himself through sniffles.

"I don't know if I'll be able to handle talking with the rest of the animals. Usually when I'm talking to them, you, Skipper and Rico are with me."

Private's heart melted as he listened to Kowalski's confession. The young penguin leaned over in his seat and wrapped his flippers around the analyst, giving him a big hug.

"You'll be alright, K'walski. You'll be alright."

Finally, after a few more minutes, Kowalski's sobs dried up. As he sat up in his seat, Kowalski wiped his eyes and Private gave him a warm smile.

"Are you ready to give this a shot?"

Surprisingly, Kowalski shook his head.

"I don't know if I am."

Private thought for a moment as he tried to figure out a way to get around this predicament. Soon enough, his eyes lit up as he managed to get an idea.

"I'll help you, K'walski!"

Kowalski looked at his teammate, confused.

"Are you sure that'll work?"

"Of course it will! I'll be there in case you need help figuring out what you want to say. We'll work our way towards you being able to carry on a conversation on your own!"

Kowalski smiled, realizing that Private's plan had a good chance of working perfectly.

"Thank you, Private. Thanks for not giving up on me."

Private simply beamed as he turned the car back on and drove off, heading back towards the zoo.

* * *

><p>When the car finally came to a stop back at the zoo, Private immediately hopped out and walked off. Confused, Kowalski attempted to follow him.<p>

"Private, where are you going?"

"Stay here, K'walski! I have someone that I need to talk to!"

Kowalski looked on, still confused, as Private disappeared around the corner. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Private finally returned with Marlene in tow. Kowalski easily noticed the look of apprehension on her face, which didn't make him feel any better.

"I guess I'd better get this over with." he said to himself.

Sighing heavily, he walked over to join Private and Marlene.

"Uh…hi, Marlene. How are you?" he said, nervously waving.

"Great, Kowalski…how about you?"

"Fine."

Kowalski nervously looked around, hoping to find something he could use to start a conversation.

"Would you like to sit down for a moment and chat?" he asked, pointing towards a patch of grass near them.

Although Marlene initially wasn't sure how much help she would be trying to get Kowalski to open up more, the look on Private's face when he asked her to help made him think that there might be a possibility, especially with the young penguin's help.

"Sure, that'd be great."

Both Kowalski and Marlene sat down on the grass, while Private found a different place to sit which was close enough to them that Kowalski could get help if he needed it, but far enough that he wouldn't get in the way of their conversation.

"So, um…beautiful day, isn't it?"

Marlene was slightly taken aback, not expecting someone like Kowalski to start a conversation with something non science-related. She soon realized, though, that it was actually kind of nice to be able to get to talk with someone normal for a change.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice out. I'm kind of surprised that there weren't that many humans in the zoo today."

"Well, it is a little cold out today. I suppose they must have wanted to stay inside."

The two of them fell silent for a moment before Kowalski suddenly realized that carrying on a normal conversation was actually pretty simple when he thought about it. His eyes lit up for a moment, smiling as he spoke up once more.

"I'll admit, with how busy I'd been on missions with the guys, I haven't really had a whole lot of time to spend with anyone else. To be honest, I'd really like to make the time to do so."

Marlene was pleasantly surprised.

"Even someone like Julien?"

"Well…maybe not so much Julien, but I'd love to spend some time with any of the others."

Marlene giggled at Kowalski's dry attempt at humor.

As Marlene and Kowalski continued to chat, Private kept an eye on them from his seat across the pathway, both pleasantly surprised at how quickly the analyst was catching on, as well as happy that Kowalski was finally opening up. Hopefully this means that he might be able to do these kinds of things more often.

"What's going on with those two, Private?"

Private jumped, almost yelping in fright before he quickly closed his beak. He turned around and found Skipper looking at Marlene and Kowalski talking.

"Skippah! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Skipper quickly turned to face Private.

"Sorry, Private. That was entirely my fault."

Private gave him a look before answering his original question.

"Oh, I was just helping K'walski break out of his shell."

Skipper looked at him, confused.

"Penguins don't have shells. Do they?"

Private chose not to answer that question, instead deciding to explain what he said.

"Well, I'm sure you're aware of the fact that K'walski wasn't exactly a social butterfly. All I really needed to do was to get him to have a normal conversation with someone without talking about science, and he's passed with flying colors!"

Skipper smiled.

"I'm impressed, Private. I was worried that I was gonna have to tie him up to prevent him from getting into his lab."

"So, does that mean he's allowed in again?"

"Yeah, I think he's learned his lesson. I'll go let him know."

Skipper walked over to where Kowalski and Marlene were sitting and cleared his throat, catching his comrade's attention.

"Oh…I didn't expect to see you here, Skipper."

"Well, personally I'm glad I was here. I was watching for a little bit while you two were chatting it up."

Kowalski and Marlene traded glances before Skipper continued on.

"Anyway, I've decided to lift the ban on your access to the lab, so if you'd like to do some catching up, that would be fine."

Kowalski paused for a moment to think.

"Thank you, Skipper. I think I'm gonna wait on going back for a little while, though, if it's alright with you."

Skipper smiled, happy that he was finally able to get through to Kowalski.

"Fair enough. Don't take too long out here."

Kowalski smiled before returning to his conversation with Marlene, happy that he finally had a reason to go outside more often.


	13. Bouncy (Maurice & Mort)

**Chapter 13 – Bouncy (Maurice and Mort's Story)**

It was another beautiful day at the Central Park Zoo, and it was just after closing. After spending the day entertaining all of the humans who chose to visit, all of the animals were ready to pack it in and use their free time wisely before the next day comes along.

However, the only ones who didn't choose to do so were the lemurs, or more specifically Julien. For today, he chose to jump around and do tricks on his royal bouncy as Maurice and Mort did their own thing.

Once the zoo closed, Maurice stopped what he was doing and walked over to tell Mort to stop. When the mouse lemur finally stopped dancing, the two of them turned around to find Julien still bouncing away.

"Uh, your majesty, the humans have left. You don't need to worry about trying to keep them entertained."

"Nonsense, Maurice! Even if dere are no humans around, I must be ready for when dey do come back!"

Maurice frowned, knowing quite well that the zoo wouldn't open again until the next day.

"You sure? Because the way things are going, you're just gonna tire yourself out, and the humans won't be as impressed with you when they do come."

Julien wasn't listening to him, though, so Maurice sighed, deciding to sit down at the smoothie bar and rest for a little while. As he watched Julien continue to bounce around, he suddenly noticed how much bigger the royal bouncy was.

Every time he passed by, he remembered it being much smaller than what it was now. Although Maurice was somewhat worried, he was thankful that it did at least have a roof so Julien wouldn't end up bouncing out of the habitat.

Meanwhile, Mort was standing in front of the bouncy, transfixed on Julien as the royal lemur bounced around. Not wasting any more time, Mort immediately shot off like a rocket towards the bouncy and started bouncing as well.

Julien immediately stopped bouncing as he noticed the tiny intruder. He quickly walked over and attempted to grab Mort and throw him out.

"Mort! What are you doing on de royal bouncy? Haven't I told you dat only de king may bounce on it?"

Mort was pretty slippery, though, with the amount of bouncing he was doing, so Julien missed the mouse lemur repeatedly.

Suddenly, there was a loud rushing of air coming from under them. Julien dropped down to his hands and knees and grabbed the fabric of the bouncy. Mort, meanwhile, took this as an opportunity to grab Julien's foot while the king did not notice.

"Oh no! De Sky Spirits-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the bouncy suddenly lifted off, carrying both Julien and Mort with it. Julien's yelling caught Maurice's attention, and he ran towards where the bouncy used to be, staring in shock as it flew away.

"What in the heck just happened?"

He stood there in confusion, wondering if this had something to do with the Sky Spirits, or if it was just a freak accident.

"Man, I'm not gonna get anywhere just standing here." he said to himself before heading off towards the penguin habitat.

* * *

><p>After finally making his way on top of where the penguin's HQ was located, Maurice quickly threw open the hatch and slid down the ladder.<p>

"Guys! Guys! I need some help!"

As Maurice looked around the room, he noticed the looks all of the penguins gave him. Skipper and Kowalski were working together on figuring out plans for future missions, while Private was busy watching TV and Rico was combing Miss Perky's hair while at the same time attempting to tune out what Private was watching. The look on his face told Maurice how well that was going.

Skipper hopped out of his chair, about to walk over to where Maurice was trying not to panic, but before he did, he turned towards Kowalski.

"Kowalski, remind me to make sure that the hatch is properly sealed. I don't like how easy unwanted intruders are getting in."

Kowalski saluted.

"Skipper, make sure that hatch is properly sealed. We've been getting too many unwanted guests in here lately."

"Not now, Kowalski! After I'm done kicking him out!" he said, pointing towards Maurice.

"Oh…sorry, sir."

Satisfied, Skipper began making his way over to Maurice, intending to do what he told Kowalski he would do, but before that could happen, Maurice suddenly held up his hands.

"Whoa, hang on, Skipper. I really need help from you guys this time!"

Skipper stopped moving towards Maurice as he thought about whether he should let the aye-aye speak.

"Fine. You have ten seconds before I kick you out."

Not expecting to be restricted like that, Maurice jumped before quickly speaking up.

"King Julien and Mort have disappeared! They were playing in the royal bouncy when it lifted off and took them with it!"

Skipper gave Maurice an unimpressed look.

"And why should I care?"

Before Maurice could give and answer, Private suddenly popped up between them without any warning, turning towards Skipper.

"Oh come on, Skippah. I know you and Julien don't really see eye to eye-"

"That's putting it lightly."

Private chose to ignore the interruption, and continued to speak.

"That doesn't mean that you should just ignore them. I mean, who knows where they are now? And who knows what'll happen if Alice finds two missing animals when she comes in tomorrow?"

Skipper groaned, annoyed that Private pulled the Alice card on him.

"Alright, we'll help you, but only because we don't want Alice to ask any questions. Take us to where you last saw them."

Maurice paused, not expecting for them to agree to do it so easily, but once Skipper gestured towards the ladder, he began heading towards it with the rest of the penguins in tow.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes, Maurice and the penguins finally managed to return to the scene of Julien and Mort's disappearance. Without waiting for an order, Kowalski immediately went to work combing through the scene.<p>

Meanwhile, Skipper decided to ask some questions to see how much Maurice remembered of the incident.

"So, tell me what happened when the other two lemurs disappeared."

Maurice paused for a second before beginning to speak.

"Well, it was just after all of the humans left. I was sitting down at the smoothie bar as Julien was bouncing. When Mort started jumping as well, Julien was attempting to throw him off, and that was when they started flying away. I don't know what happened!"

"Did you see anything unusual before their disappearance?"

Maurice paused, initially having no answer for it, but he suddenly remembered something important.

"Oh yeah! The bouncy was a lot bigger than I remember it usually being."

Skipper's eyes widened as he finally realized what happened.

"That's it! It must have been overinflated and sprung a leak!"

Before Skipper could ask any more questions, Private suddenly spoke up.

"But how did it manage to fly away? I remember a few times when it deflated, and it stayed on the ground."

"I think that I can answer that, Private."

The group turned around to reveal Kowalski as the source of the comment, as he held a long cable in one of his flippers.

"I believe that this must be what has tethered the bouncy castle to the ground. Is that correct, Maurice?"

"Yeah, I do remember seeing that once or twice while Julien was bouncing."

Kowalski nodded before turning back towards the group and showing the end of said cable, which was frayed and covered in spit.

"If my calculations are correct, someone or something must have chewed through this cable, which in turn would have allowed the bouncy castle to slip out of its riggings and fly off when the leak sprung."

"But who could have sabotaged the cable like that, though?" asked Skipper, giving the group around him distrusting looks.

"Uh, Skipper, penguins don't have teeth. I'm pretty sure we can't chew through this." said Kowalski.

"Oh…right. Well, um…this means that the only other suspect is you, Maurice!"

Maurice started, not expecting to be blamed for this predicament.

"What? Are you kidding? I work for Julien! What makes you think I'd want to get rid of him?"

"A likely story."

Skipper continued to give Maurice a distrusting look before Kowalski cleared his throat, catching their attention.

"Uh, shouldn't we focus on finding the two of them before we worry about who actually did it?"

Skipper sighed, clearing his throat before turning back towards Maurice.

"Alright, last question. Do you remember which direction the bouncy castle went in?"

Maurice paused as he tried to remember, eventually pointing towards the east.

"They went that way."

Kowalski immediately started making calculations in his head, walking around the scene and making notes on his notepad. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, Kowalski turned towards the rest of the group.

"I think I have an idea of where they might have landed."

Instead of listening to what the analyst had to say, Skipper just gave him a confused look.

"Didn't he just say that they went that way? All we have to do is head that way and we'll find him!"

"Well, that's true, but that doesn't mean that they went in a straight line. There's always a distinct possibility that the bouncy castle may have changed direction once or twice during its flight. I do, however, have a general area of where it could have landed."

Although Skipper wasn't convinced, he decided to play along with Kowalski, and he began heading out of the lemur habitat towards the car.

"Come on, everyone. Let's go find Sad Eyes and Ringtail and get this over with."

After a few seconds pause, the rest of the penguins followed behind Skipper. As for Maurice, he was following them as well, but very reluctantly, as he clearly remembered the last time he went on a ride in that car.

* * *

><p>Thankfully for Maurice's lunch, Skipper took driving duties with Kowalski taking shotgun so that he could lead them all towards the spot where the bouncy castle hopefully landed. The other three animals were unfortunately squashed into the backseat due to the fact that it was meant just for the four penguins, and Rico wasn't too happy about the lack of room.<p>

After finally reaching the eastern side of the city, the penguins and Maurice kept an eye out for the bouncy castle.

At first, none of them could find it, which was strange considering how out of place it would look inside the city. But they eventually manage to spot the giant version of Julien's head that was on top of it, and they headed in that direction.

Unfortunately, when they finally reached it, there was no sign of either Julien or Mort, and Maurice began to worry. Thankfully, Kowalski noticed the look on the aye-aye's face, and he moved to diffuse the situation.

"Now, calm down, Maurice. There could be a small chance that they might have been thrown off of the bouncy castle during its flight, but it's very unlikely. Judging from who we're dealing with here, they might have walked off."

Unfortunately, this didn't make Maurice feel any better, so Kowalski tried a different approach.

"Hey! Maybe they might be trying to get back to the zoo! We should start looking for them."

Before things began to get awkward between the two of them, Skipper decided to step in and put a stop to it.

"Come on, men. We don't have any time to waste if we're gonna find them."

"But what are we gonna do, Skippah?" said Private.

Skipper didn't immediately answer, choosing to think carefully about what he wanted to do.

"Everyone back to the car. We should be able to cover a lot more ground if we do it that way."

Everyone else agreed with the leader's sentiments, and they all piled into the car.

* * *

><p>Time passed as the penguins and Maurice continued to search for Julien and Mort. Unfortunately for them, there was still no sign of the two lemurs, and it was starting to get dark.<p>

Skipper immediately noticed the sun setting, and he quickly thought of a plan, stopping the car before he turned towards everyone else.

"Alright, the first plan isn't working as well as I thought it would. We're gonna have to split up if we're gonna get a chance to find those two before nightfall."

"But Skipper! Are you sure that's a good idea? It's pretty easy for someone to get lost in a city like this!" said Kowalski.

"I know, Kowalski, but this is a risk that we have to take."

Reluctantly, the group split up and went their separate ways to cover more ground, but before they could get far enough from each other, Rico suddenly heard something coming from a trash can that he passed by.

Confused, he walked back over to the can and placed an earhole next to it to listen in, the noises coming from inside muffled due to the closed lid.

"I cannot believe dat you got us trapped in dis receptacle of stinkiness! I am going to smell for de next week!"

There was a pause in the noise before someone else spoke.

"I found a banana!"

Although Rico was unsure if he was just making up those voices that were coming from the trash can, he decided to check it out anyway. But before he did, he quickly ran out to the street and started yelling random gibberish, thankfully managing to catch everyone's attention before they got out of earshot.

As they rushed over to where Rico was, Skipper was the first to speak up.

"What's going on, Rico? Did you find something?"

Instead of speaking, Rico pointed towards the trash can, earning a look of confusion from the commander.

"Did you lose something in there, Rico?"

Rico sighed, deciding that trying to explain himself wasn't getting them anywhere. The crazed penguin quickly made his way over to the other side of the trash can, getting down on all fours before rushing over and slamming his shoulder into the can, knocking it over and revealing Julien and Mort covered in muck from the garbage, Mort clutching a half-eaten banana.

"Your majesty! You're okay!" said Maurice, almost giving him a hug before deciding against it due to the smell.

Both Julien and Mort just looked around in confusion, not saying anything.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Skipper stepped forward and reluctantly began ushering the two lemurs towards the car.

"Come on, you two. We need to get you back to the zoo."

Skipper had a disgusted look on his face due to having to endure the smell, but he didn't complain about it.

Before they could get into said car, though, Kowalski stepped in front of them.

"Hang on a moment, Skipper. Even if they weren't covered in trash, I don't think that they would be able to fit in the car. How are we gonna take the two of them home?"

Skipper thought for a moment, before an idea suddenly popped into his head. He turned towards the weapons expert.

"Rico, give me some rope, if you wouldn't mind."

Rico immediately horked up the end of a length of rope, grabbing it with his flippers as he began to pull it out of his gut. Unfortunately, the rope was triggering Rico's gag reflex, so he ended up having to focus on keeping his lunch down as he pulled the rope out.

Thankfully, though, Rico managed to get the rope out without anything following it, and he handed it over to Skipper, who took it and led Julien and Mort to the back of the car, tying the two of them to the bumper.

"Keep your feet up while we're driving, Ringtail."

"Do not be telling me what to do, bossy penguin! I can choose whether I lift my royal feet up or not!"

"Do you want your feet to be on fire, Ringtail? Then go ahead and keep them down!"

Skipper stared at Julien for a moment, annoyed that he was still being as bossy as ever. After a few seconds of silence, Julien finally lifted up his feet, and Skipper took it as a sign that they're safe to go.

The rest of the penguins and Maurice piled into the car itself, and as Skipper turned on the engine, he turned towards the back of the car.

"You'd better be holding on back there! I tied it as tight as I could, but there's no guarantee that it'll hold till we get back to the zoo!"

There was no answer from the two tied-up lemurs outside of Julien's head moving, so Skipper figured that they must be holding on for dear life.

Finally, Skipper pulled out of the parking spot, and the penguins and lemurs were finally on their way back to the zoo.

* * *

><p>After what felt like forever to Julien and Mort, they finally managed to make it back to the zoo, and by some miracle, they were still attached to the car.<p>

When the car finally came to a stop, Julien suddenly started yelling.

"Get me out of dese this instant! Dis is much worse dan de last time dat I had to ride in dis monstrosity!"

Kowalski took the initiative and untied the lemurs from the car, who hopped down and immediately started making their way back to their habitat.

"Ugh, I really need to take a shower. I smell awful!" said Julien.

Instead of following the other two, Maurice stayed behind for a moment and turned to face the penguins.

"Hey, thanks for helping me find those two, you guys. I don't know what I'd have done without you."

"Don't mention it. Hopefully this means that I won't have to deal with watching Ringtail bounce around anymore." said Skipper.

Before Maurice could catch up with the other lemurs, Skipper quickly went up to the aye-aye and grabbed his face with his flipper.

"Don't mention this to anybody."

Maurice nodded, and Skipper released him. As the penguins headed towards their habitat, Maurice smiled, happy that even if Julien and Mort weren't around to help, he still had some friends that can help, even if they weren't all that happy to do so.


	14. Empty (Rico)

**Chapter 14 – Empty (Rico's Story)**

It was yet another beautiful day at the Central Park Zoo. However, the penguins weren't there to enjoy it, as they were in the city on a rescue mission.

When the penguins finally reached the coordinates that they were given, they found themselves inside the dump, and on top of a large pile of trash was Max, who was too busy freaking out to notice them.

The penguins hopped out of the car and headed towards said pile of trash, and this gave Skipper the opportunity to take in the sight in front of him. Sighing, he looked up towards the top of the pile and cupped his flippers around his beak to project his voice.

"What are you doing up there, Moon Cat?"

This caught Max's attention, and he paused in his freakout to look down at the four penguins at the bottom of the trash pile, giving them a look.

"Oh, no reason. I was just chased up here by that giant guard dog they have here!"

Skipper took a look around for a second before facing Max once again.

"I don't see any guard dog around here. Why don't you just come down from here so we can get back home and you can be on your merry way, huh?"

Max frantically shook his head, refusing to come down. Sighing exasperatedly, Skipper turned towards his team.

"Men, it looks like Moon Cat won't be coming down on his own, so we're gonna have to go to Plan B."

Private raised his flipper.

"What is it, Private?"

"Um…what's Plan B?"

Skipper sighed, about to berate Private for not remembering what the plan was, when Kowalski suddenly spoke up.

"You know Skipper, Private's right. We didn't exactly plan past A, here."

Annoyed, Skipper sighed before speaking up once more.

"Alright, so we may have forgotten to have more than one plan. No matter. We'll just go up there and get him down ourselves."

Although Kowalski and the other penguins weren't thrilled with Skipper's choice to wing it, they decided that since this wasn't really too dangerous of a mission, there was nothing wrong with trying this kind of approach.

So, as the penguins finally reached the bottom of the garbage pile, they all looked up towards the top, and Private voiced what all of the penguins were thinking.

"So, how are we gonna climb this, Skippah? It doesn't look too steady to me."

Skipper paused for a moment to think before suddenly getting an idea.

"Easy."

He turned towards Rico, holding out a flipper.

"Rico, grappling hook."

The weapons expert hocked out a grappling hook as asked, and Skipper aimed towards the top of the pile, firing it and hooking on to one of the garbage bags at the top of the pile.

Before Skipper could start the climb towards the top, Kowalski put a flipper on his shoulder to stop him.

"Skipper, are you sure this is safe? We're not exactly climbing up a mountain here."

"Don't be so worried, Kowalski. Everything will be fine."

"B-but sir-"said Kowalski before Skipper closed the analyst's beak and gave him a stern look.

"Everything…will be fine."

Although Kowalski had a definite feeling that something was going to go wrong, he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince Skipper at this point, so he kept silent, and Skipper took it as a sign to release the analyst.

"Now that that's settled, I'll be leading the climb up the pile of trash. Rico will be behind me, and Kowalski and Private will bring up the rear. Do you understand?"

Everyone nodded, and Skipper headed towards the rope, grabbing it and beginning his ascent.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of climbing, the penguins were just about near the top of the pile, and Skipper couldn't resist the opportunity to tell Kowalski that he was right.<p>

However, before he could turn around and do so, the penguins suddenly dropped down a few inches, and Kowalski knew the answer why.

"Skipper, I think that the trash bag the grappling hook is attached to might be ripping. I think it might be a good idea to abort the mission and head back down to the ground before the hook comes loose."

"Nonsense, Kowalski. We're almost at the top. Besides, you know that we never abort the mission unless there's no other option."

Skipper was about the continue the climb up when the rope suddenly started to slowly descend towards the ground, the hook at the top ripping through the plastic of the garbage bag it was attached to.

After realizing that they were dropping, Skipper had to quickly think of a plan to save themselves.

"Rico, give me some ice picks, and quickly!" he said, desperately reaching out towards the weapons expert under him.

Rico did as he was asked and attempted to hock out some ice picks, but nothing came out. Confused, Rico continued to try to hock out the ice picks, but still nothing.

"Rico, where are those ice picks?" asked Skipper.

Before Rico could answer, the grappling hook finally came loose. The penguins attempted to frantically grab at the piles of garbage they were climbing against, but it was no use, and they were sent plummeting to the ground.

Thankfully with the way that the garbage was piled up, the penguins really only had to endure the landing. So, outside of smelling like garbage from the bags they landed against during the fall down, as well as a little bit of soreness from the landing, they were for the most part unhurt.

As the penguins picked themselves up and brushed themselves off, Skipper spoke up.

"Everyone okay?"

Private and Rico nodded, but Kowalski decided to speak up.

"I'm fine, Skipper, but this whole thing did prove my point."

"Alright, Kowalski, I get it. There's no need to rub it in."

Annoyed, Skipper turned to face Rico.

"And where were the ice picks when I asked you, Rico?"

Rico simply shrugged while uttering a string of gibberish in an attempt to explain himself.

"Not there? What do you mean? I thought we filled you up with pretty much everything we could find."

Rico shrugged once again, not knowing what else to say. Before Skipper could say anything else, Kowalski stepped forward, looking like he wanted to try something out.

"Rico, would you mind doing a little test for me? I want to see if my theory about your predicament is correct."

Rico nodded, and Kowalski began listing random items that he wanted to see the weapons expert hack out. However, as with the ice picks, nothing came out at all, lending credence to what Kowalski was thinking actually happened.

The analyst turned towards the rest of the group to present his findings.

"Now, I know that I've only tried out ten different items, but there's a good chance that our friend Rico here has gone empty."

Both Private and Skipper looked slightly worried for a second before both realized that they weren't sure what Kowalski meant.

"What do you mean by empty, K'walski?" asked Private.

"What I mean is that there's nothing inside him besides what normal penguins have."

"Well, all we have to do is to find some stuff for Rico to eat and he'll be back to normal. Right?"

"That's correct, Private. Unfortunately, Rico usually keeps so many different things inside his gut, so we might be at this for a while."

"Yeah, and we also need to make sure not to just put anything in there. It has to be something that could be useful for future missions." said Skipper.

Private nodded eagerly, having finally understood what needed to be done. However, before he could begin searching for items for Rico to have, Skipper held him back.

"Whoa there, Private. We can't just go walking around willy-nilly. We have to have a plan if we're gonna get this done as efficiently as possible."

Skipper then turned towards Kowalski, opening his beak before realizing that the analyst already had his notepad out.

"Way to be on the ball, Kowalski!"

"Thank you, Skipper. I've been trying to be more prepared recently."

Kowalski cleared his throat before beginning to explain his plan.

"Now, as I'm sure most of you are aware, a majority of the stuff that Rico spits out on a daily basis happens to be explosives. The only problem is that we don't have any more back at the HQ since Rico found our old stash."

Skipper and Kowalski glared at Rico, who nervously chuckled.

"Anyway, while I was doing some light reading, I found that there is actually a military base on the outskirts of the city. We should hopefully be able to at least land all of the explosives we need, if not any more useful weapons."

Skipper paused, rubbing his chin as he thought about what Kowalski said.

"Interesting. Why wasn't I notified about the existence of this military base before?"

"It's probably because the base is on the north side of the city. We've never really traveled outside of the city, unless you count Hoboken."

That last comment earned him a glare from Skipper.

"I thought I specifically ordered everyone never to mention that godforsaken place in my presence again."

"Sorry, sir. Won't happen again." said Kowalski, mentally kicking himself for letting that slip.

"See that it doesn't." said Skipper, before heading towards the car.

Before Skipper could hop in, though, Private stepped forward.

"Skippah, wait! Shouldn't we look for some things that we can use here in the dump before we go to the base?"

Before Skipper could answer, Rico let out a loud "Blech!" before vigorously shaking his head.

"Does that answer your question?" said Skipper as he gestured towards the disgusted weapons expert.

Private didn't answer, choosing to join Skipper inside the car. Once Kowalski and Rico hopped in as well, Skipper turned around to face the other three penguins.

"While I'm driving, I want you three to keep an eye out for anything that Rico could eat and we'll stop and grab them. And remember, only useful things! If Rico wants to eat something else later, I don't mind. Just don't do it until we're done, okay?"

Skipper was staring straight at Rico as he asked that last question. The weapons expert nodded, and Skipper turned the engine on, pulling the car out of its parking spot and out of the dump.

"Hey guys, where are you going? I'm kind of still stuck up here!" yelled Max as he attempted to catch the penguins' attention.

However, it seems that they must have forgotten about him, so Max sighed and attempted to find a comfortable spot on the pile, figuring that he was probably going to be there a while.

* * *

><p>During the penguins' journey to the military base, they made a few stops at some of the stores along the way to find some other weapons for Rico to carry inside him.<p>

The first stop that they made was at a hardware store, and the rest of the penguins began tossing whatever they could find on to the floor next to Rico, who picked them up and swallowed them whole, somehow not getting himself injured despite the sharpness of some of the tools they grabbed.

After finally managing to fill Rico up to a point where the other three penguins were comfortable, Skipper hopped down from the shelf and walked over to the weapons expert to check up on him.

"You okay there, Rico? Do you need to take a break or anything?"

Rico shook his head, but Kowalski spoke up just as he rejoined the other two.

"Are you sure? This is a whole lot of stuff to eat, even with your bottomless gut."

Rico shook his head once more before a light grumbling noise came from his stomach.

"What was that?" asked Private, unsure where the noise was coming from.

Although Rico could tell where it was coming from, he figured it was nothing to worry about.

"I 'unno." he said, shrugging.

The other three penguins paused for a second to make sure that it was nothing bad, but they didn't hear anything else.

Before they began to make their way towards the front door, Private suddenly spoke up once more.

"Wait, how are we gonna pay for all of this? We put quite a bit of stuff inside Rico."

Skipper turned towards the weapons expert.

"Rico, do you have any money left in you?"

Rico paused for a few seconds, shaking his belly for a little bit before facing Skipper and shaking his head, causing the commander to sigh heavily.

"Looks like we only have one choice, men. We're gonna have to sneak out of here without paying."

Private gasped, not expecting someone like Skipper to stoop to this kind of level.

"We can't do that, Skippah! It's not right!"

"Sometimes you have to make the tough choices, Private. It's something you're gonna have to learn if you want to lead your own team one day."

Although Private looked like he still didn't want to go through with Skipper's plan, he knew that they didn't really have much of a choice in the matter, so the young penguin reluctantly agreed to follow along.

Thankfully for the penguins, the front of the store was pretty crowded, so it gave them the opportunity to blend into the crowd and not be noticed. However, this also raised the possibility of getting stepped on, so they had to be careful if they wanted to make it to the front door.

They eventually managed to make it to the front door unscathed, and instead of risking trying to go through the door normally, the penguins slipped under the metal detector and through the door, somehow not setting it off despite the large amount of metal currently in Rico's stomach.

* * *

><p>After a few more stops to fill Rico with more useful objects (including money), the penguins finally managed to make it to the military base just as the sun was beginning to set and the street lights started to turn on.<p>

Skipper noticed the setting sun just as he parked the car outside one of the gates into the compound, and he turned towards the rest of his team to relay his instructions.

"Alright, men. It's almost sunset, so we're gonna have to move quickly if we want to get all of the explosives and get back to the zoo in a timely manner. This means that we're gonna have to avoid deviating from the path. Don't bother grabbing anything else unless you think it would be just as useful as the explosives. Are we clear?"

The other three penguins saluted before unbuckling themselves and hopping out of the car. As they joined Skipper up against the wall near one of the gates to the base, Skipper took a peek inside for a moment before turning back to the others.

"Everyone stick to the shadows. There's not that many guards, but they look pretty dangerous."

Skipper didn't wait for an answer, as he slipped around the corner and under the gate, the rest of the penguins following behind a few seconds later.

* * *

><p>After a little while spent sneaking around the base, the penguins finally managed to find the armory inside a building not too far away from the main base of operations.<p>

The journey over to said building went pretty smoothly, but they ended up running into an obstacle, as there were two guards stationed in front of the door.

The penguins stopped behind a pile of sandbags, and while remaining completely silent, Skipper signaled for Kowalski and Rico to knock them out, which they successfully did, allowing the rest of the penguins to enter the armory and find the section where the explosives were.

"Move quickly, men! The humans are bound to find the ones that we knocked out and sound the alarm. I want to be out of here before then!"

Rico began quickly gobbling up as many bombs as he could manage, while the rest of the penguins grabbed sticks of dynamite and placed them into a pile in the center of the area, which Rico began swallowing when he was finished with the bombs.

However, the sheer number of objects Rico was eating at once was starting to get to the normally ravenous weapons expert, so he was starting to slow down in his eating, and his stomach was starting to hurt.

Thankfully, this caught Skipper's attention, and he immediately went into action, pulling Rico away from the sticks of dynamite.

"That's good enough, soldier. Now let's get out of here."

Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about the soreness in Rico's stomach, so Skipper ended up having to help him out of the armory as Kowalski and Private followed closely behind.

As they exited the armory and returned to the safety of the shadows, the base's alarm suddenly went off and soldiers began running towards the sound of the disturbance.

"Double time, men! We need to get out of here before they figure out that the explosives are missing!" said Skipper.

The penguins picked up the pace as ordered, but with Skipper carrying the heavier than normal Rico, the speed wasn't increased very much.

Somehow, as if by some massive stroke of luck, the penguins managed to slip under the gate and reach the car without getting spotted, which they were all quite grateful for.

Skipper hefted Rico towards the car and put him into one of the back seats, buckling him in just as the sick weapons expert was about to slump over.

"Private, you keep an eye on Rico while we're heading back." said Skipper.

Private saluted and hopped into the back seat next to Rico, while Kowalski and Skipper took the two front seats. Skipper didn't waste any more time, as right when everyone was settled in, he turned the engine on and peeled away from the base as the soldiers ran around in confusion.

* * *

><p>It was a bit of a longer journey than normal, but the penguins finally managed to make it back to the zoo without any real incident. Kowalski took care of leading Rico inside the HQ, as Skipper and Private followed close behind.<p>

"Man, I'm sure glad Rico's filled up again." said Private as he watched Kowalski set Rico down on his bed.

"Agreed. We filled him up pretty full today, so hopefully we won't have to deal with this again for a while." said Skipper before turning away from the scene in front of him.

So, as Rico recovered from his large meal, the rest of the penguins returned to their normal days, thankful that they dealt with this inconvenience before it got any worse.


	15. Trapped (Skipper)

**Chapter 15 – Trapped (Skipper's Story)**

It was a slightly dreary day inside the Central Park Zoo. Nobody was visiting today due to the weather, so Alice decided it was probably best to close the zoo early and finish all of her jobs before heading home.

As for the animals, whoever had a roof over their heads in their habitats were spending their free time under said roofs. The other animals were unfortunately out of luck, so they ended up having to either huddle under a tree, deal with the rain if it happened to come or, in the case of the lemurs, hide behind the smoothie bar.

The penguins, meanwhile, were inside their HQ huddled in front of the TV as they watched the weather report.

"…There is a 40% chance of a thunderstorm coming through New York City, which is expected to stick around throughout the night, so I would suggest for everyone to stay inside. This thunderstorm may cause some damage, so don't put yourselves at risk."

As the weatherman finished his report and Chuck Charles appeared on the screen again to continue the news report, Skipper turned towards the rest of his team.

"It looks like today's mission is gonna have to wait, boys. Too bad Mother Nature didn't want us to go beat up Blowhole again."

"I'm pretty sure Mother Nature doesn't have a grudge against you, Skipper. Frankly, I'd be surprised if she can hold grudges." said Kowalski.

"Oh, don't you worry, Kowalski. I'm keeping my eye on her."

Skipper accentuated his last statement by looking upwards and giving the ceiling an evil eye.

"I see you up there, Mother Nature. I'm gonna figure out a way to stop you."

Kowalski sighed and shook his head before attempting to change the subject.

"So, does anyone have any ideas about what we can do? The weatherman told us that we can't leave the HQ until tomorrow."

The four penguins paused to think for a moment before Private perked up.

"Ooh, ooh! I know! There's gonna be a Lunacorns marathon starting pretty soon! All we need to do is change the channel."

None of the other penguins were interested, especially Kowalski and Rico after the last time they had to endure that show, but neither them nor Skipper really wanted to disappoint the young penguin, so Skipper attempted to compromise with him.

"So, how long is this marathon you speak of?"

"Six hours." said Private.

Skipper winced, realizing that letting Private watch the whole marathon was gonna drive Rico to suicide. However, before he could try and figure out a way to prevent the auditory torture, the hatch suddenly popped open, and to the penguin's surprise, Buck Rockgut hopped down the ladder.

"All right, one of you is going to tell me where the Red Squirrel is right now!"

The penguins stared at Buck confused.

"Hang on, Red Squirrel? I thought you were after White Widow!" said Private.

This earned Private a glare from Buck.

"Well, it turns out that your intel was once again wrong, and 'Newfakeplacesburg' also isn't a real place. It's a good thing that I received word that the Red Squirrel once again escaped, or I'd have a real problem with you."

Private was noticeably nervous after hearing that vague threat from the unhinged special agent, but thankfully Skipper was there to help out.

"Listen Buck, you'd better not be threatening one of my men, or you're gonna have to answer to me!"

Skipper gave him a stern gaze, but Buck was completely unfazed.

"Know who else would harbor someone who wouldn't tell me where the Red Squirrel's base is? The Red Squirrel!"

Buck then charged at Private, attempting to grab him so that he could get some answers out of the young penguin. Skipper was there to hold him off, as he tackled the former special agent.

Buck was still putting up a fight, though, so as Rico joined in to help subdue him, Skipper began leading him towards the ladder out of the HQ.

"You're out of here, Buck! No one attacks my men like that and gets away with it!"

Private, feeling sorry for Buck, stepped in front of Skipper and blocked his way.

"What is the meaning of this, Private?"

"Oh come on, Skippah! Just because he tried to jump me doesn't mean he's all bad. Besides, you know how long he's been in that vault! That can drive anyone bonkers!"

Although Skipper gave Private's words some thought, he continued pushing Buck towards the hatch.

"While I do see your point, I really think that he needs to go, at least for all of our sakes."

However, before Skipper could finally kick Buck Rockgut out, there was a flash of lightning, and rain suddenly starting pouring through the still open hatch.

"We've got a breach! Kowalski, double time!" said Skipper, still clutching Buck's flipper.

Kowalski immediately hopped over to the ladder and flipped up to the top rung, slamming the hatch shut and stopping any more rain water from getting in.

"The hatch is secure, Skipper." said Kowalski as he rejoined the rest of the group.

"Good work, Kowalski. Now, back to business. What are we gonna do with Senor Crazypants here?"

"Hey, I heard that, twinkletoes!" said Buck.

Although Skipper was slightly offended at the girlish nickname, he chose not to say anything about it. Before he could figure out a solution, though, Kowalski piped in.

"Well, we can't just kick him out now that the storm's here. He's gonna have to stay the night."

"That is not happening, Kowalski. We are not having someone who can out-psycho Rico in the same vicinity as all of us. It'll be a madhouse!"

Rico piped in himself with a string of gibberish, as he was offended that someone was even crazier than he was.

"Nonsense, you two. All we have to do is keep Buck's mind off of you-know-who and everything will be alright. And once the storm passes, we can send him on his way."

Skipper paused, unsure if keeping the possibly unstable Buck Rockgut around was a good idea. Unfortunately, he didn't really have much of a choice, as it started to thunder, and it became much too dangerous for anyone to be outside.

"Alright, fine. He can stay, but if he starts destroying the HQ, I'm tying him up. Comprende?"

The other three penguins nodded, and Skipper let Buck go, letting him join the others.

As Private led Buck off towards the television, Skipper began to wonder if he was going soft. Sighing heavily, he decided that he really needed to put his foot down one of these days so that the others don't get any ideas.

* * *

><p>The night thankfully started off pretty smoothly, as Buck was actually behaving himself for once. Still, Skipper remained on guard.<p>

However, things began to go south, as Private sat down and turned the television on, and changed the channel to the Lunacorns marathon.

"Private, what are you doing? You know what that does to Rico!"

Skipper glanced over and grimaced at the look of fear on the weapons expert's face.

"You see? It's not every day when something can make even Rico cower in fear."

"B-but…you never told me I couldn't, Skippah!" said Private, attempting to defend himself.

Skipper was about to reply to Private's point before he realized that he never did say no.

"Hey, that was only because Buck showed up."

However, after seeing the disappointed look on Private's face, Skipper knew he needed to do something. He walked over to where Private was sitting and placed a flipper on his shoulder.

"Listen, Private. I understand that you'd want to watch your little TV show, but it's unsafe for us to go outside. Rico's not gonna have anywhere to go, especially for how long you said this was supposed to be."

Private paused for a second to think before replying.

"Well, what about K'walski's lab?"

"Uh, no offense, Private, but I'd rather not have Rico anywhere near my equipment, especially after the last time I let him in." said Kowalski from across the room.

Rico simply chuckled before returning to brushing Miss Perky's hair.

As for Private, he sighed, realizing that Skipper was looking out for the interests of everyone, especially with what they were going through currently.

"Alright Skippah, I understand."

He turned towards the TV to change the channel to something else, only to see Buck standing in front of the control panel for their surveillance equipment and pressing as many buttons as he could get his flippers on.

Private immediately went over to where Buck was and attempted to pull the rockhopper penguin away from the controls, but with Buck's commando training, he was easily able to throw the penguin off and return. Private tried to pull him off a couple of more times, but each attempt failed.

"Someone tell me how to work this thing! I need to use this to find where the Red Squirrel's hiding."

Kowalski was about to launch into a blow-by-blow explanation about how the surveillance worked, but a look from Skipper told him to keep quiet. Disappointed, Kowalski tried to keep himself busy by doodling in his notebook, while Skipper and Rico made their way over to Buck and pulled him away from the panel.

"You don't need to worry about the Red Squirrel right now, Buck. All you need to do is just sit down and relax. We're gonna be here for a while." said Skipper as he dragged Buck towards a chair.

"Traitors! You're aiding and abetting Penguin Enemy Number One!" yelled Buck before he was sat down in said chair.

Buck thankfully didn't immediately go right back towards the surveillance equipment, which gave Skipper and Rico time to discuss the situation.

"I think it's about time we tied him up for trying to access unauthorized equipment. What do you think, Rico?"

Rico nodded vigorously in agreement. However, before he could retrieve the rope, Private stepped in.

"Hang on, Skippah! Don't you think you're being a bit harsh on Buck? Outside of what just happened, he's largely been pretty well-behaved."

Skipper paused for a moment, a look of amusement on his face as he looked at Private.

"Well, this is a surprise, Private. What's with all this support all of a sudden? You were completely against him when we first got him out of that vault."

"Well, um…that's true, but that was before you three figured out that he was…you know…"

"What are you getting at, Private?" asked Skipper impatiently.

Private nervously glanced over at Buck before pointing one of his flippers and spinning it in a circle, giving the universal sign for 'crazy'.

"Oh, of course." said Skipper, slightly embarrassed that he forgot about that part.

"Besides, I'm one of those penguins who can usually see the good in most people. Isn't that right, K'walski?" said Private as he looked towards the analyst.

"Yes, that is quite true, Private." said Kowalski, even though he wondered exactly why Private needed him to corroborate his story.

"Okay, Private. I understand. I'll let Buck go for now, but that's strike one for him. He gets five strikes, he gets to spend the rest of the night hogtied on the floor. You know how that old saying goes? Five strikes and you're out?"

"I believe it's three strikes, Skipper." pointed out Kowalski.

"Alright Kowalski, we'll give him a couple of extra shots." said Skipper, slightly annoyed.

Beaming, Private grabbed Buck's hand and led him over the television.

"Come on, Buck, let's see if we can find something you'll like!"

Although Buck was slightly turned off by the manner in which Private led him (he was skipping), he willingly let the young penguin lead him to the television and sit him down in front of it.

* * *

><p>Despite the sun coming down for the day, the storm was just as vicious, which meant that there was still no chance of the penguins being able to leave the HQ. Unfortunately, being stuck inside and not being able to search for the Red Squirrel meant that Buck's rampant paranoia lead to the special agent beginning to see things.<p>

Kowalski came out from his lab after performing a few experiments to pass the time, he noticed Buck sitting at the table, scribbling furiously on a piece of paper while also glancing to his right and left every so often so that no one sneaks up on him.

At first, Kowalski wasn't too worried about Buck's mental state, but when he noticed the wild-eyed look on the rockhopper penguin's face, as well as the fact that he was shaking, he began to get worried.

Nervous, he slowly began walking over to where Buck was, wanting to see if he was okay while at the same time wanting to avoid setting off the short-fused penguin.

"Uh...Buck, are you alright?"

Before Kowalski could react, Buck had him up against the wall, one of his flippers up against the analyst's neck.

"You need to tell me where the Red Squirrel is right now, or things are gonna get very messy."

"I don't know where he is, Buck! You need to calm down!" said Kowalski despite barely being able to breathe.

As Kowalski desperately tried to pry Buck's flipper off of him, the special agent stared at him blankly for a moment before speaking up, having realized what was going on (at least in his mind).

"I see how it is. You must be working for the Red Squirrel, aren't you, Egghead?"

"No, I'm not working for him! Honest!"

"That's what they all say. Know who else would say that they don't work for the Red Squirrel? The Red Squirrel!"

If Kowalski didn't already have his airway restricted, he would have involuntarily gasped. Instead, he desperately began looking around for Skipper, Rico, or Private, hoping that they would have noticed, but it turns out all of them were watching a monster truck rally, which was just loud enough for them not to hear the scuffle.

Knowing that he wasn't going to get any help, Kowalski turned towards Buck and attempted to reason his way out of his predicament.

"Please Buck, you have to understand. I would never work for someone like the Red Squirrel! He's Penguin Enemy Number One!"

"A likely story! What are you? A squirrel in a penguin costume?" asked Buck as he gave Kowalski a wild-eyed stare.

Kowalski spluttered for a few seconds before emphatically saying that he wasn't one, but Buck obviously didn't believe him. Surprisingly, though, Buck relieved some of the pressure on Kowalski's throat, but before the analyst could jump to the conclusion that Buck did believe him, the agent dragged him towards Private's first-place fishing trophy, pushing it aside to reveal a bamboo cage inside the hole.

"Oh, come on! How did you even find the parts to build this?" asked Kowalski, annoyed.

Buck didn't answer, as he threw Kowalski inside and locked the cage door behind him. Once Buck shut the trophy in front of the hole, there was no chance for Kowalski to be heard over the monster trucks now. That didn't stop the analyst from trying, though.

"Help! This maniac has locked me inside a cage!" Kowalski yelled, before coughing as he recovered from the chokehold.

"I hope that Skipper notices that I'm gone soon. I don't like it in here."

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for Kowalski, Skipper was too engrossed in the monster trucks to be any help. Private, however, was different, as the rampant destruction and loud noise was starting to get to the young penguin.<p>

After standing up, Private attempted to explain where he was going.

"I'm gonna go…um…check on K'walski and Buck."

Neither penguin answered, so Private decided just to go ahead and do what he was planning on doing. He walked over to the other side and saw that Buck was back at the seat he was in originally, once again furiously drawing on his paper.

"Oh, hello Buck! Where's K'walski at?" he said cheerfully.

"Who?" asked Buck as he looked up from his work.

"You know…tall…says a lot of words I don't really understand."

It took a few seconds, but Buck finally figured out who Private was talking about.

"Oh, Egghead! Haven't seen him."

Although Private was slightly suspicious with the way Buck brushed off his question, he decided to leave him alone and find Kowalski himself.

However, he was unable to find Kowalski in his usual places, which puzzled Private.

"I wonder where K'walski could've gone? He can't have just left us. He's gotta be somewhere in the HQ!"

Before he could continue his search, though, there was a sharp pain in the back of Private's neck, and his vision went white.

When Private finally came to, he found himself inside a dark room. Confused, he looked around only to find Kowalski inside the room with him.

"K'walski? What happened?" he asked, slightly woozy.

"Apparently Buck must have thought we were working with the Red Squirrel, so he captured the both of us and put us in here. Don't worry, though, we're just behind your fishing trophy."

"Oh…so, what now?"

"All we can do is wait and hope Skipper or Rico find us in time."

Unfortunately, just as Kowalski said that last sentence, the door opened again, and Rico was roughly thrown in to the cage before the lights went out once again.

Rico immediately went to the cage door and started shaking it as hard as he could while babbling incoherently.

"It's no use, Rico. Skipper can't hear us in here over the monster trucks. All we have to do is wait."

Rico was undeterred, though, as he hocked up a paper clip and began to work on picking the lock. Excited, Kowalski stood up and made his way over to the weapons expert.

"Good thinking, Rico! We can pick our way out of here and then make sure that Buck Rockgut doesn't cause any more trouble for the rest of the night!"

Rico nodded in appreciation before focusing on the task at hand.

* * *

><p>Back in the main HQ, the monster truck show has just finished, and Skipper stood up, intending to stretch his legs, only to find that outside of Buck, the HQ was completely empty.<p>

"Where in the heck is everyone?"

Confused, he began looking around the room, trying to find the other three penguins while also calling out their names to see if they would answer.

Buck's paranoia made him begin to think that Skipper was also part of the covert operation to take him down, so he slowly began making his way over to Skipper in an attempt to take him down and put him in the cage with the others. However, Skipper was ready, as he grabbed Buck's flipper mid-chop and flipped him over his shoulder, only for Buck to land on his feet.

"Alright Buck, what have you done to my men?"

"Your men? Don't you mean the Red Squirrel's men?" asked Buck, his mind unable to process the reality of the situation.

Skipper was about to continue speaking, but he soon realized that it was pointless to reason with someone as unstable as Buck Rockgut, so he decided to drop the formalities.

"Well, if you aren't gonna tell me where they are, I'm gonna just beat the answers out of you!"

With that, Skipper and Buck began to fight, but it wasn't long before Buck got in control due to having much more experience than Skipper.

Thankfully, before it could get any worse for Skipper, Private's trophy on the wall burst open, and the other penguins immediately jumped into action. With Buck caught off guard by the sudden escape of the penguins, he was easily tackled to the ground.

As Rico and Kowalski held down the struggling Buck, Skipper leaned down to face Buck.

"Take this as a lesson, Buck. This is why you don't mess with my team. Rico, rope!"

Thankfully, there was some rope already on hand, so Rico didn't have to hock it up from his stomach again. When Buck was finally hogtied, Skipper turned around to look at his men.

"Another job well done, men! Up high!"

The penguins did their normal high five routine before Skipper spoke up once more.

"Alright, lights out everyone! Hopefully the storm will pass in the morning."

"Shouldn't we at least help Buck be comfortable?" asked Private.

"Alright, I suppose we can at least give him that. Rico? Help him get to sleep."

Saluting, Rico picked up Buck and set him down in a more comfortable place on the floor before suddenly hocking up a mallet and rearing back. Before he could knock him out, though, Skipper held the weapons expert back.

"Too harsh, Rico! We're trying to help him sleep, not knock him out."

Disappointed, Rico tossed the mallet away before picking Buck up and rocking him back and forth, quickly mumbling a lullaby before placing him back down on the ground.

"Good enough. Alright boys, let's head to bed." said Skipper.

The four penguins hopped into their bunks, somehow able to get to sleep just fine despite the storm raging outside.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Skipper woke up to find the area around him was much quieter than what he was used to. He quickly checked over his shoulder, thinking that someone was about to ambush him, but thankfully there was no one there.<p>

Hopping out of his bunk, Skipper looked around the room, only to suddenly realize that the spot on the floor where they left Buck hogtied was empty except for the rope that he was tied with.

Realizing that he must have escaped, Skipper slammed his flipper on the alarm button, causing Rico, Kowalski and Private to nearly fall out of their beds in fright as they were jolted awake. Thankfully, they still managed to stay upright and prepared, adopting their battle postures.

"We have an escaped penguin, men! I want a search team out in the zoo on the double!"

However, instead of immediately beginning the search, the other three penguins noticed the silence coming from the area around them.

"Hey, it looks like the storm's finally passed!" said Private, smiling.

"So? That just means that Buck could be anywhere now!" said Skipper.

"I'm pretty sure that there isn't going to be a need for a search party, Skipper. The most likely thing that happened was that once Buck found out that the storm passed, he left to continue his search for the Red Squirrel." said Kowalski.

"Well, good. Now that we've gotten rid of that psycho, we can finally get back to work." said Skipper after awkwardly coughing.

"That's kind of a shame. I would've loved to have spent a little more time with Buck." said Private sadly.

"He was a good soldier. It was too bad that his never-ending search for the Red Squirrel led him to become this." said Kowalski, bowing his head for a moment.

"Never mind that. Come on, men. It's time for morning exercises."

And so, the penguins headed up top, having somehow managed to survive being locked inside of the HQ with Buck Rockgut, hopefully having learned something in the process. However, it seems unlikely that was the case.


	16. Sleepwalking (Marlene)

**Chapter 16 – Sleepwalking (Marlene's Story)**

It was another calm night inside the Central Park Zoo. Everyone has already gone home for the night, and all of the animals were asleep as they prepared for the next day where it all happens again.

However, not all of the animals were asleep.

Due to a recent spate of vandalism inside the park, the penguins decided that there needed to be someone to do recon during the evenings to make sure that no one else decided to do so.

So, for the past few days, one of the penguins would spend a few hours per night on top of the bell tower, keeping an ever vigilant eye on the zoo for any evildoers.

Thankfully, as of yet no one has made any attempt to break into the zoo, but what they would find one night was something he definitely didn't expect to see.

During one night, Skipper took care of the nighttime recon, and as he canvassed the area with a pair of binoculars, he found that there was no sign of anyone around who wasn't already asleep.

"Whoever it is that keeps breaking in, you'd better watch out. I'll find you one of these days, and when I do, hooo baby, it's not gonna be pretty." he said to himself.

Suddenly, Skipper spotted something out of the corner of his eye as he made another pass. Curious, he focused on the area where he found it and focused in. Unfortunately, with how high up he was, he couldn't exactly make out who it was, but he knew at this point it didn't really matter.

"There you are."

Skipper hopped down from the bell tower and made his way over to where he saw the figure, making sure to keep out of sight. Eventually, when he finally crossed paths with the figure, he hid in a bush, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Waiting carefully, Skipper sprang into action just as the figure passed by him. Jumping out of the bush, he immediately tackled the figure, pinning them to the ground.

"Ah-ha! I've got you! Now you…"

Skipper fell silent when he finally got a good look at who he had pinned under him.

"Marlene? What in the world?"

It was in fact Marlene under him, but surprisingly she wasn't immediately chewing him out for attacking him. In fact, her eyes were closed, almost like she was still asleep.

Confused, Skipper decided it was probably best to return her to her habitat, not wanting her to wake up and find him on top of her.

While she was pretty heavy for an otter, Skipper was somehow able to carry her over his shoulder without any real resistance from her.

When they actually reached the habitat, Skipper realized that he couldn't just hop over the fence with the weight he was carrying. He briefly considered waking up one of the others and getting them to help, but he decided that it was best not to waste more time than he needed.

So, after somehow managing to slowly pull Marlene over the fence, Skipper found himself with one more obstacle in his way.

"How in the heck did she get across the pool without falling in?" he said to himself as he took in the water surrounding her habitat.

Shrugging, he was about to just swim across the pool and hope that the water wouldn't wake her up, when he spotted the plank that Alice used to cross the pool wasn't in its usual place when not in use. It was down on the ground near the side of the habitat, which meant that Alice must have forgotten to raise it.

"So that's why. Leave it to Alice to forget."

Crossing the plank, Skipper carried Marlene over to her cave and placed her down in her bed before heading off, but not before glancing over at her and smiling as he watched her rest for a moment.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for Skipper, last night wasn't the last time he would have to deal with this, as he ended up having to drag Marlene back to her habitat multiple times.<p>

Even removing the plank didn't seem to do the trick, as she was sopping wet when Skipper caught her, and yet she still had her eyes closed.

Knowing that something needed to be done, Skipper privately met up with Kowalski the next morning as they got ready for the zoo to open.

"Kowalski, we've got a problem."

Kowalski looked curiously at his commanding officer.

"Uh…what kind of problem, Skipper?"

"Something's going on with Marlene. I've been seeing her walking around the zoo over the past few days, and yet when I confront her, she's got her eyes closed like she's asleep. It's almost like she's hypnotized or something!"

Kowalski paused as he thought about what Skipper said.

"I'm pretty sure that it's unlikely that it's hypnosis. I think it's more likely that this is a textbook case of somnambulism."

"And that is?"

"Sleepwalking. It seems likely to me that she's been sleepwalking."

Skipper paused as he considered Kowalski's diagnosis.

"Are you sure that it isn't hypnosis? Because this 'sleepwalking' sounds fake to me."

"I assure you that sleepwalking is a real thing, Skipper. It's very rare in people of our age, but it still happens."

Although Skipper still didn't completely believe Kowalski, he decided it was probably best to go with it.

"I think that we should have a talk with Marlene…find out what's going on with her."

"I don't think you'd be able to get much out of her, Skipper."

"And why's that? Is she a spy that's trained to resist our interrogation methods?"

Slightly caught off guard by Skipper's off-putting conclusion, Kowalski paused for a moment to recollect his thoughts before answering.

"Uh…no. Most sleepwalkers don't remember anything that they did once they actually wake up. I doubt Marlene's gonna be any different, to be honest."

"Well, I say there's nothing wrong with giving it a shot. We might be able to at least get an idea about what's going on."

"I suppose that we could, but I would suggest we wait until after closing time. It's almost time for the zoo to open."

Not realizing how much time has passed, Skipper was forced to hurry up to get everyone ready.

"Double time, men! We need to be topside ASAP!"

Thankfully, everyone was already ready to go, so they quickly made their way up the ladder, successfully closing the hatch and covering it right before the first groups of humans started passing through.

* * *

><p>After what felt like forever, closing time finally came. Once the remaining humans were all ushered out of the zoo by Alice, everyone knew it was safe to go about their business.<p>

However, before Rico and Private could head down into the HQ for some relaxation time, Skipper spoke up.

"Come on, boys! We've got some business to take care of first."

"Where are we going, Skippah?" asked Private, curious.

"We're gonna pay Marlene a little visit."

"Oh, really? That sounds wonderful! I always love visiting her."

"Well Private, to be honest, this isn't exactly the kind of visit that you're thinking of."

Private was admittedly unsure about what Skipper meant, but Kowalski spoke up before Private could ask.

"What do you mean by that, Skipper? I thought we were just going to talk to her about her sleepwalking problem."

Both Rico and Private were surprised to hear about Marlene's issue, having not been made aware of it until now.

"Um, question. What's sleepwalking?" asked Private.

"Well…sleepwalking is when you're still walking around and doing what you normally do during the day. However, you're still in the state that you normally are when you're sleeping, so you don't really have any control over your actions." explained Kowalski.

Private gave an involuntary shiver after hearing the 'no control over your actions' part, but he didn't say anything more, and Kowalski turned towards Skipper, waiting for the commander to give an answer to his original question.

"Well, I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I think that Marlene may have had something to do with the vandalism inside the park."

All three of the penguins were surprised to hear Skipper accuse Marlene.

"Why would you even say that, Skippah? Marlene would never do something like that!" said Private.

"Yeah, Marlene wouldn't, but what about her feral side?"

Kowalski opened his beak to argue before realizing that Skipper did have a point. He paused as he thought about what to say next.

"You know, that is a fair assumption. Since Marlene doesn't have any control over her actions while she's sleepwalking, she can easily get out of the zoo, and I'm sure you all know what happens when she's out of the zoo."

The penguins were all well aware of what happens when Marlene is outside of the zoo borders, as they all clearly remembered the last time that happened.

"Let's just deal with talking to Marlene first and figure out how to stop her from sleepwalking once we get some more information. Agreed?" asked Skipper.

The other three penguins nodded.

"Alright, then. Let's move out!"

The four penguins headed out of their habitat, heading for the otter habitat nearby.

* * *

><p>"Hey guys! What's up?"<p>

Marlene greeted the penguins as they hopped over the fence into her habitat. She still had her normal smile on her face, but once Kowalski was able to get a closer look at her, he found that she had some visible bags under her eyes.

However, before he could point this fact out to everyone, Skipper spoke up.

"We're just investigating the vandalism inside the park, and we wanted to ask you a few questions. If you'd happen to know anything about what's going on, that'd be great."

Marlene gave Skipper a weird look.

"I don't know how much help I'd be, but okay…I guess."

Skipper didn't start asking questions immediately, though, as he took the time to pace back and forth a couple of times. Skipper then suddenly whipped around to face her, causing Marlene to jump from the suddenness of his movements.

"Where were you yesterday evening?"

"Uh…right here. I'm usually asleep during the evenings."

Skipper made a disbelieving noise, which caught Marlene's attention.

"Alright, what's this about? You're acting like I have something to do with this!"

Skipper opened his beak to confirm Marlene's suspicions, but before he could, Kowalski interrupted him.

"Uh…excuse me for a moment, Marlene."

Nervously chuckling, Kowalski led Skipper away from the rest of the group, leaving Rico and Private to speak to her.

"What is the meaning of this insubordination, soldier?" asked Skipper once he was able to free his beak from Kowalski's clutches.

"I'm sorry, Skipper. I know that we've all determined that Marlene seems like the most likely culprit, but I doubt that you're going to be able to convince everyone else, especially considering the fact that she doesn't remember anything about being feral!"

"What are you getting at, Kowalski?"

"What I'm getting at is that we can't just accuse her and be done with it. We have to find a way to fix her sleepwalking problem."

Skipper paused for a moment as he considered Kowalski's proposal.

"Alright Kowalski, you've got your chance. Don't blow it."

Although Kowalski was slightly put off by the look Skipper gave him, he stood up and saluted.

"I won't let you down, sir."

Once the two penguins returned to the others, Kowalski spoke up.

"Marlene, have you been having trouble sleeping lately?"

Marlene looked at Kowalski, confused.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for one thing, I can tell that you're faking trying to be cheerful. Most likely you're trying to hide the fact that something or someone is making you irritable. Two, I noticed the bags under your eyes. Usually those are a telltale sign that someone isn't getting enough sleep."

Kowalski listed a couple more reasons before a glare from Marlene told him that he'd said enough. However, instead of lashing out, Marlene sighed.

"Okay, I'll admit it. I have been having some trouble sleeping."

"Is there any particular reason why?" asked Kowalski.

Marlene paused, realizing she didn't really know.

"Come to think of it, I don't really know. I'm usually pretty out of it during the night, so everything's usually a haze between when I go to bed and when I wake up."

Both Skipper and Kowalski sighed before Skipper spoke up.

"This isn't getting us anywhere, Kowalski!"

However, instead of agreeing with Skipper, Kowalski suddenly had an idea.

"Not to worry, Skipper. I've got an idea."

"Really? Well then, let's hear it!"

However, instead of answering him, Kowalski glanced over at Marlene before walking over to Skipper and whispering it in his earhole.

"Oh. Well, alright then. Excuse us, Marlene. We need to head back to the HQ."

The penguins then left the habitat, leaving a confused Marlene.

"What in the heck was that about?"

* * *

><p>When the penguins finally returned to their HQ, Skipper was the one to speak first.<p>

"Alright, Kowalski, tell us what your ingenious plan is this time."

Kowalski nervously cleared his throat before pulling out his notebook. After quickly scribbling some pictures, he showed them to the others, pointing towards each picture as he explained.

"Well, it's simple, really. All we have to do is have one of us keep an eye on Marlene during the night. Hopefully whatever is causing her to not get enough sleep will be revealed to us, and we can simply put a stop to it. Problem solved."

"Um…K'walski?" asked Private.

"Yes, Private?"

"Wouldn't two of us be better? We do need to make sure that Marlene doesn't get out of the zoo and turn feral."

"Actually, that is true. As they say, two penguins are better than one." said Skipper.

Kowalski nodded.

"That sounds fine to me. If I may, I would like to suggest you and Rico to go out, since I believe that you two are the most capable."

"Sounds good to me. What about you, Rico?" said Skipper.

Rico nodded vigorously.

"Then it's settled."

Satisfied, Kowalski went off towards his lab while the rest of the penguins made preparations for tonight.

* * *

><p>When tonight finally came, Skipper and Rico were ready to go, two pairs of binoculars trained on the otter habitat as they hid inside a bush nearby.<p>

"Skipper's log: Subject is about to head for bed. Will keep a close eye out for anything that may prevent a good night's sleep."

Rico looked over and noticed that Skipper had his tape recorder out. At a questioning look from the weapons expert, Skipper was forced to defend himself.

"What? It's always good to document the important things. You know, for posterity!"

Rico simply shook his head before returning to surveillance.

Time passed as the two penguins continued to watch Marlene. Nothing at all happened, so Skipper was beginning to think that nothing was going to happen.

However, before he could turn to Rico and voice his concerns, dance music started playing.

"What in the-"

Skipper looked around for a moment, wondering where the music was coming from, before mentally slapping himself as he realized that it should be obvious where it was coming from.

"Of course it has to be Ringtail causing trouble!"

Skipper was about to rant for a little bit longer when Rico suddenly spotted something through his binoculars. Babbling incoherently, he caught Skipper's attention and pointed out the figure. Once Skipper was able to pull his binoculars up to his eyes, he saw that Marlene was once again out of her habitat.

"Hoover dam, we need to move quickly! Rico, you go handle Ringtail. I'll make sure Marlene doesn't get out of the zoo."

Rico saluted before sliding off towards the lemur habitat. As for Skipper, he quickly made his way over to Marlene. He managed to catch up to her without any real trouble.

"Come on, Marlene. It's time to head back to bed."

He attempted to pick up Marlene and carry her back like before, but for some strange reason, the sleepwalking otter put up a lot more resistance.

"What the-"

Skipper attempted everything he could think of, including holding her back, chopping at her pressure point to knock her out, and pushing her back towards her habitat, but nothing seemed to work.

"Man, that is one strong woman." said Skipper to himself before quickly trying to think of a plan.

Unfortunately, he wasn't Kowalski, so trying to think of a plan didn't come easy. However, he eventually managed to come up with one.

He quickly released Marlene before hopping on to his belly and sliding as fast as he could to the vet's office.

Once he finally reached the office, his progress was halted as he realized that he needed the rest of his team to be able to enter.

"Think, Skipper, think! You're running out of time!"

Skipper quickly paced back and forth, desperately trying to think of a backup plan before Marlene reached the zoo boundaries, when he noticed a stack of cages off to the side of the building, most likely having just been cleaned.

"Yes, thank you!"

Skipper quickly slid over and pulled one of the cages off of the stack, somehow not knocking over any of the others. However, another problem arose when Skipper realized that he had to carry the cage all the way back to Marlene within a very limited timeframe.

Thankfully, another solution popped up when he noticed a cloth on top of one of the cages. Not wanting to waste any time, Skipper climbed up and grabbed it, wrapping the cloth around the bottom of the cage and dragging it along with him.

It was still a heavy cage, so carrying it was still a problem for Skipper, but he was able to do it without making too much noise.

Eventually, he managed to spot Marlene, and just in time, too, as she was just about to make it to the gate.

"Come on Skipper, move!" he said to himself.

Hopping on to his belly, he slid down the hill he was on, which gave him enough momentum to carry him and the cage towards Marlene. The cage soon came to a stop right in front of her, and Skipper barely managed to get the cage door open in time before Marlene ran into it.

Once Marlene tripped over the ledge into the cage, Skipper quickly locked the cage and hopped down; letting out a breath he didn't know he had held in.

"That was close."

The cage was almost pressed up right against the gate to the outside, which illustrated just how close it was to getting worse.

"Now let's get you back home. Hopefully Rico's dealt with your…problem."

Skipper began dragging the cage back towards the otter habitat, eventually being met by Rico, who had a dented metal baseball bat in his flippers.

"There you are, Rico! I'm guessing from that bat that you must have dealt with our lemur problem."

Rico nodded, smacking the bat into his other flipper a couple of times for emphasis.

"So, what was Ringtail's excuse this time?"

"La'e nig' dan' pa'ty"

"Ah, I see. Hopefully he's learned his lesson this time. Give me a hand with this, Rico. This is kind of heavy."

* * *

><p>The next morning, with the zoo closed for the day, the penguins were given the day off so that everyone could get back to their normal sleep schedules thanks to the late nights out over the past week.<p>

However, when they all came up topside to enjoy their free time, they were called over by Marlene.

"Hey guys? Can you come over here for a second?"

After reaching the habitat, Private and Kowalski were caught off guard by the sight in front of them.

"Would someone mind explaining why I'm in a cage?" asked a slightly ticked-off Marlene.

Both Private and Kowalski looked over at Skipper, who nervously chuckled as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Well, that's kind of a funny story…"

And so, as Skipper attempted to explain why he forgot to let Marlene out of the cage, Julien was left to once again mourn as his tape deck once again lay in ruins, thanks to the overzealous weapons expert and his metal baseball bat. The one good thing that came out of the destruction of Julien's tape deck, though, was that Marlene was finally able to sleep once again once it was taken care of, so the vandalism was successfully stopped in its tracks.


	17. Graveyard (Private)

**Chapter 17 – Graveyard (Private's Story)**

It was a clear night inside the confines of New York City. Most of the residents of the city were asleep due to the late hour, but there were a few stragglers, including Fred, who was returning from visiting one of his remaining relatives upstate.

Now, no one really knows why Fred would still be out this late at night, but most likely it was just because he got lost on the way home.

Anyway, he eventually managed to stumble on to the road across from the park, and he paused to think.

"Is that my house over there or over there?"

He pointed towards each of the trees in the park in turn as he spoke, which while it was true that they looked similar, it didn't make Fred look any better for forgetting which tree was his house.

Eventually, he decided just to head to the park and go from there, figuring that he might have an easier time finding it if he got a closer look.

However, as he crossed the street, he was suddenly blinded by a pair of bright lights. His hands immediately went up to his face to shield his eyes from the brightness, which luckily gave him the chance to see what was behind said lights.

Even with his lacking mental capacity, Fred still was able to process when he was in danger, so he managed to jump out of the way, barely missing being struck by what turned out to be a bus.

As he was busy catching his breath on the side of the road, he slowly (and I mean very slowly) began to realize that this was the same bus that claimed the lives of his two uncles and six cousins.

He quickly ran towards the zoo, intending to tell the penguins about it, but unfortunately the revelation soon disappeared from his mind as he ended up smacking right into his tree by complete accident.

"Oh, here it is." he said to himself, before climbing up and hopping inside.

* * *

><p>The next day came with the penguins up topside and ready to go with their training as usual. However, as Skipper came up to join them, they were surprised to find he had a different idea.<p>

"Change of plans, boys. We're heading into the park. I think it's about time for some on-field training."

"What do you mean by on-field, Skippah?" asked Private, curious.

"What I mean, young Private, is that we're having ourselves a competition! A little game I like to call Capture the Flag!"

The other three penguins were pleasantly surprised to hear the plans Skipper had for them.

"Ooh, that sounds fun! Are we bringing in anyone else, or is it just us four?" asked Private.

"Just us, Private. You and I are going up against Kowalski and Rico. Now, double time, men! We don't want to waste any time if we want to get a game in before the zoo opens!"

The penguins immediately hopped over the fence, sliding out of the zoo and into the park. After reaching the clearing that Skipper led them to, they found that the field was already set up for them, with a red and blue flag planted on either side of the clearing.

However, there was one odd thing that Kowalski noticed, which he pointed out.

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong Skipper, but aren't the flags in these types of games usually hidden from each other?"

"Well, that is true, but we don't exactly have that kind of time to play a full game like you say it's supposed to be. Besides, they're pretty far apart. There are a lot of rocks around as well. Perfect cover."

"If you say so, Skipper."

Satisfied, Skipper continued on.

"Alright men, to your bases, and come out swinging. I want to see you three give it your all!"

The other three penguins saluted. However, before they could separate to begin their game, they were interrupted by a voice coming from above them.

"What are you guys doing?"

Slightly annoyed at getting interrupted, Skipper looked in the direction where the voice came from to find Fred staring down at them from his tree.

"Hello, Fred!" said Private, waving cheerfully.

However, this only earned the young penguin a blank look from the squirrel, who went back to focusing on Skipper.

"Classified...and I would appreciate it if you would head back into your tree and pretend you never saw this."

"I can pretend really good. There was this one time-"

"Yeah yeah, thank you, squirrel, that's quite enough. Now shoo." said Skipper, annoyed.

"Okay."

Fred was about to scamper back into his home, but he suddenly remembered something he was planning to say to them…somehow.

"Oh yeah, there's been something I've been meaning to say to you guys."

"Really. And what would that be?" asked Skipper, giving Fred an unimpressed stare.

Fred didn't answer immediately, since he was actually trying to remember what it was he wanted to say. It got to the point where Skipper's eye was beginning to twitch from having to deal with Fred when he finally remembered.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you guys."

"Alright, back to the zoo, men. He doesn't have anything." said Skipper.

"But what about the game?" asked Private.

Skipper didn't answer, though, as he was busy trying to push the other penguins towards the zoo. However, before they could get far, Fred finally managed to remember exactly what happened.

"Hey guys, wait! I nearly got run over by a bus earlier this morning!"

"So? What's your point?" asked Skipper as he stopped in his tracks.

"I think it was that one bus that kept running over all of those animals late at night. I forget what it was called."

Both Kowalski and Private gasped in horror.

"The Graveyard Eight? I thought Private beat that bus before his last promotion!" said Kowalski.

"Well, um…technically-" started Private, before being interrupted by Skipper.

"Well, in any case, it looks like the Graveyard Eight has come back for a cold, hard bottle of revenge!"

Private immediately went white, scared that the demon bus was now supposedly looking for him.

"Come on boys, back to the HQ! We need to discuss our plan of action!"

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, by the time they got there, it was almost time for the zoo to open, so they had to wait to formulate their plan until after closing.<p>

When that time came, the penguins immediately hopped down into their HQ.

"Kowalski, give me some options. We need to work quickly if we're gonna stop that godforsaken bus from running over any more animals!"

As Kowalski formulated his plans, Private stepped forward, nervously twiddling his flippers.

"Um, question. Are you sure that we really need to take that bus off of the road? I mean, it's not like there's a whole lot of animals out there compared to here in the zoo."

"Do I need to remind you of how dangerous the Graveyard Eight is, Private?" said Skipper.

"Um, no…but-"

"Kowalski, go grab that banjo for a minute. I think Private here needs a reminder of the dangers of taking the Graveyard Eight lightly."

Kowalski quickly scanned the room before finding the banjo off in the corner of the room. However, when he got closer to it, he found that it wasn't in the same kind of condition he remembered it being in last time.

"I'm afraid the banjo's not gonna happen, Skipper."

"What do you mean by that, Kowalski?"

Skipper turned around, only to see Kowalski hold up the mangled remains of what was the banjo that Kowalski commandeered from the lemurs during their last escapades with the infamous bus.

"What in the heck happened to it?"

Rico chuckled bashfully before speaking.

"I' wa' me. Sor'y."

Skipper rounded on Rico, who had a look on his face like the commander was complimenting his work on destroying the banjo. However, what Skipper had in mind was different.

He walked over to where Rico was standing and put a flipper around the weapons expert's shoulder.

"Listen Rico, your propensity for violence is one of the reasons as to why you're a valued member of this unit. However, there are times where violence _isn't _the answer, especially for no reason. You got that?"

Rico nodded, showing that he understood, before Skipper handed him the remains of the banjo.

"Go throw this out for me. I don't think we're gonna be able to salvage this."

Rico stared at the banjo for a few seconds before carelessly tossing it over his shoulder just as Skipper turned away from the other penguins.

"Now, back to business. Kowalski, how are we gonna stop this monstrosity?"

Unfortunately, with Kowalski distracted with trying to find the banjo, he was unable to fully formulate a plan, so he had to quickly improvise.

"Well, we could always send Private out to take it on."

"Great idea, Kowalski! That'll work perfectly!"

Private immediately rounded on Kowalski, a shocked look on his face.

"What? Why me?"

"Well, you are the most experienced in taking on something as big as the Graveyard Eight. I'm sure you know exactly how to take it down!"

Private knew full well that wasn't the case, but he knew that he would have a difficult time convincing the others, so he turned towards Skipper, hoping to convince the commander to rethink his plan.

"Please Skippah, can't you guys at least come with me? I'll get massacred out there if I go alone!"

Skipper had no intentions of changing his mind, but he was forced to relent once Private pulled out the puppy-dog eyes routine.

"Alright, fine. We'll come with you. You're worse than Sad Eyes sometimes." he said, sighing.

Private sighed as well, relieved that he at least wasn't going to be doing this alone. However, his relief was interrupted when Skipper spoke once more.

"There is one condition, though."

"Um…and what would that be, Skippah?"

"I still don't think that you're quite ready to lead the team on a mission, especially after the last time that happened, so we're gonna serve as your backup."

Private's relief was once more replaced with panic. He soon began hyperventilating, which forced Skipper to take action.

"Now calm down, Private. We'll be in constant radio contact with you during the entire operation, so if you need help, just call us and we'll come."

"You promise?" asked Private after finally managing to calm down.

"Promise. You do know the penguin credo, right?"

"Never swim alone, Skippah!"

"Exactly!"

To Skipper, it looked like his pep talk did the trick, so he lightly patted Private on the shoulder before letting him do his thing. Private, however, still had some doubts, but he made sure to hide the expression on his face so that Skipper wouldn't see.

* * *

><p>Night came, and while usually every one of the animals would be asleep as they prepared for the next day, the penguins were wide awake, as they made their final preparations to head out and take on the Graveyard Eight.<p>

Once they were all set up with their communicators taped to their heads, the four penguins crowded around the table in the center of the HQ, where there was a map of the bus routes for the graveyard shift that they managed to commandeer from an unsuspecting passerby.

Kowalski quickly shifted the map to a position where he would be able to reach it before beginning to lay out the plan, pointing out each part of the map as he spoke.

"Alright, so here's the plan. As you can see here, this route here is the normal route that the Graveyard Eight takes during its path of destruction every night. We are going to intercept the bus at this intersection here, where Private will hop on to the bus and work his magic. While he's inside, the three of us will follow behind the bus in the car, so I would suggest not wasting too much time inside."

Kowalski quickly gave Private a look to emphasize his point before folding up the map and sticking it under his arm.

"Now, if no one has any questions, I would suggest we get moving. There's only thirty minutes until the bus starts its route, so we shouldn't waste any more time."

Private raised his flipper.

"Um, question. Are you sure it's safe for me to jump between two moving vehicles, especially if they're going as fast as I think they're gonna go?"

"Of course. I'll be behind the wheel, and I'll make sure that the process goes smoothly." said Skipper.

Although Private was slightly relieved that Skipper wasn't going to put Rico behind the wheel, he still didn't look any less forward to the impending operation.

Finally, after what felt like forever to the young penguin, they finally made their way out to the car, hopping in as Skipper turned towards the rest of the team.

"Better strap yourselves in, boys. We're gonna have to go fast if we want to keep up with the Graveyard Eight."

Private nervously gulped, briefly considering hiding in Kowalski's lab before changing his mind and strapping himself in just as Skipper pulled out.

* * *

><p>Luckily, they managed to make it to where the bus route started just in time, but since the bus was already moving they had to speed up to be able to keep up with it.<p>

Finally, Skipper managed to get close enough to the bus, and he spoke up.

"Alright Private, you're up. You should be able to jump up on there."

Private, however, didn't move, choosing to voice his concerns to Skipper.

"Uh, Skippah, are you sure that I'm gonna be able to jump over there?"

Skipper sighed.

"Rico, toss him over there!"

"Okay!"

Despite Private's protests, Rico unbuckled himself and grabbed the young penguin, throwing him towards the bus.

Caught off guard by the sudden nature of his exit from the car, Private only barely managed to hang on once he hit the back of the bus. Picking himself up, he hopped up to the window and opened it, squeezing through and getting inside.

"There he goes. He's growing up so fast." said Skipper, wiping away a tear as he watched Private go.

"Well, we did kind of throw him to the wolves, Skipper. He kind of has to."

"Don't ruin the moment, Kowalski."

"Sorry, Skipper."

* * *

><p>Inside the bus, Private took a look around. With this being the beginning of the shift, there was a good chance that there was probably going to be no one on besides the driver, but Private didn't want to take the chance of there being any more collateral damage than was needed.<p>

He slowly began walking forward until he eventually reached the driver's seat. Once there, he quickly hid under the bus seat behind him.

"Okay Private, you can do this. All you have to do is get this bus to stop moving. The only problem is how."

Private tried to think of a plan of attack, but since he wasn't Kowalski, he had a bit of a tough time trying to think of one that would actually work.

"I could always just knock the lady out…no, that would just cause her to crash the bus, and I don't want that."

Private continued talking to himself as he ran through possible plans in his head, before a good one finally popped into his head.

"Ah-ha! I've got it!"

Not wanting to waste any more valuable time, Private quickly ran to the back of the bus, and hopped on to the top of the back seat. Placing a flipper to his communicator, he began speaking.

"Private to Skippah. Do you read?"

"Private! Use the codenames! We're on a mission!"

"Sorry, Skippah! Um…Pigeon to Eagle, do you read me?"

"This is Eagle. What do you need?"

"Can you see if Osprey would lend me a freeze ray? I've got a plan to stop the bus."

Although Skipper was curious to see what Private had in mind, he went ahead and turned towards Rico.

"Osprey, you heard what the man said."

Rico nodded and regurgitated a freeze ray as asked. Catching it in his flippers, he waited until Private lifted the window and squeezed through enough before throwing it towards him.

Luckily, Private managed to barely catch it after bobbling it and nearly dropping it. He began slowly lifting the ray gun towards him, squeezing himself through the window.

Unfortunately, he was forced to let the window drop closed, which he hoped didn't alert the driver, but as he paused to listen in, he found that it wasn't the case.

Sighing in relief, he made his way back towards the front, slipping under the same seat he was before and lying down on his belly. As he took aim at the gas pedal, he slowly breathed in and out before pulling the trigger.

However, the driver chose that exact moment to make a turn, which threw Private's aim off, and as he slid over to the other side of the bus, the freeze ray ended up hitting the driver, freezing the old lady solid.

With the bus still moving, though, Private had to think quickly before it ended up causing more damage. Taking a quick look around the bus, he found a small suitcase that someone must have left behind during the last night.

Running over, he grabbed the suitcase, dragging it towards the driver's seat and throwing it on to what he assumed was the brake pedal.

He closed his eyes, hoping that it was the right choice, only for his decision to be proven right as the bus came to an abrupt stop.

Unfortunately, the sudden stop ended up sending Private flying, and he smacked into the front of the bus, grunting as he hit the metal.

Thankfully, though, he was largely unhurt, and he took the opportunity to pick himself up and make his escape through the window.

* * *

><p>When Private finally hopped down from the Graveyard Eight, he was immediately greeted by the other penguins.<p>

"Great work, Private! I knew you could do it!" said Skipper, a smile on his face.

"Thank you, Skippah! I do appreciate the support you gave me."

"Well, that's what I'm here for. Now come on. Let's all head home. It's been a long night."

As the penguins hopped back into the car to head back to the zoo, a man walked up to the Graveyard Eight, expecting to be let in. However, when the door didn't open, he looked up and saw the driver frozen solid, with a suitcase under her. After staring at the strange scene in front of him for a few seconds, the man decided just to walk off and go see if another bus would take him home.


	18. Silence (Julien)

**Chapter 18 – Silence (Julien's Story)**

It was another day at the zoo, just before opening. Normally around this time, the penguins would be getting ready for another day of pretending to keep the humans entertained, but something came by that distracted them from being able to do their usual routines.

It turns out that while Alice was passing by the penguins earlier in the morning, they managed to overhear her talking about a new acquisition. Every one of them was curious to hear what kind of animal was coming in, but unfortunately she didn't spill the beans.

After she was out of earshot, Skipper dropped his cute and cuddly act and turned towards the rest of his team.

"Men, I think we need to get some information about this new addition to the zoo."

He turned towards Kowalski, intending to ask Kowalski for some options, but when he finally met eyes with the analyst, he was pleasantly surprised to find Kowalski already had his notepad out. As he continued to scribble out plans, Skipper couldn't help but compliment his second-in-command.

"Good job, Kowalski. You're on the ball today!"

"Thank you, Skipper. I do try my best."

Kowalski then cleared his throat before continuing on.

"Anyway, I think our best option is simply to sneak into Alice's office and search through her files to see if there's any information about the new animal."

"Sounds like a plan. Come on, let's go!"

However, before Skipper could make his way out of the habitat, Private cleared his throat.

"Um, Skippah? Isn't it almost time for the zoo to open?"

Skipper stared at Private for a few seconds before his thoughts were interrupted by the bell above the gate ringing, signaling for the zoo to open.

"It's time already? That went quickly. Looks like we're gonna have to hold off on Operation: Info Dump for now."

After he finished speaking, Skipper immediately went back into the cute and cuddly routine, the others managing to get into character just in time before the first groups started coming in.

* * *

><p>Once the bell rung to signal closing time, and the humans have all cleared out, Skipper took it as a sign that they were free to go forward with the mission.<p>

Dropping his character, Skipper signaled for the others to follow him out of the habitat. However, it didn't take long before they were interrupted, Skipper wincing as he heard the loud voice coming through.

"Hello, silly penguins! It is I, your king, and I command that you tell me what it is that you are doing dere."

Although Skipper really wanted to just ignore King Julien and move on, he knew that the lemur probably wouldn't get the idea, so he stopped in his tracks and turned towards Julien.

"Ringtail! This really isn't the time! Now leave us alone. We're in the middle of a mission."

Thinking that it was enough, Skipper prepared to move on, but before he could, Julien hopped down from the barricade and landed in front of the penguins, blocking his path.

"Ooh, what kind of mission are we talking about? You know, I've always wanted to be a secrety spy. Dey got all of dem cool gadgets, and all of de women you can carry! Isn't dat great?"

As Maurice and Mort hopped down to join their king, Julien started doing random spy poses, forming his hands into a gun and pointing it everywhere as he looked as suave as he could manage.

Obviously, Skipper wasn't too happy with getting interrupted while in the middle of a mission. As he watched Julien continue to act like himself, he began to get angrier, even almost resorting to socking Julien in the face.

Thankfully for the king's face, Skipper managed to calm himself down enough to speak rationally, although he was clutching his beak with one of his flippers as he felt a headache coming on.

"Ringtail, please stop. We really don't have time for your shenanigans."

"Oh come on, bossy penguin! Don't you think I would be a good spy like you?"

Both Skipper and Kowalski traded looks, each knowing that there was absolutely no way that was ever going to happen, but neither of them really wanted to voice that opinion.

Choosing not to answer, the penguins attempted to make their way through the lemur blockade so that they could continue with the mission, but somehow Julien managed to hold his ground.

"Hey, you did not answer my question! I will not be letting you go until you answer my question."

Skipper was beginning to get aggravated again, so for the sake of his sanity, he brought Kowalski to the side where the others wouldn't be able to hear. Julien attempted to chase after them, but thankfully Private and Rico took the hint and held the lemurs back so that they could have some privacy.

"Listen Kowalski, we really need to find a way to get around Ringtail and those other two before they drive me off the wall. Got any ideas?"

Kowalski thought for a moment before replying.

"I suppose we could find a way to distract him. With his limited intelligence, if we can manage to get him focused on something else, hopefully he'll forget all about his spy fantasies."

"Well, I guess that'll have to do. Come on, I've got an idea."

Kowalski and Skipper rejoined the rest of the animals a few seconds later, with Skipper immediately launching into his plan so that Julien wouldn't have a chance to speak.

"Alright Ringtail, how about we have ourselves a little wager?"

Julien couldn't help but be a little curious, but he tried his best to hide it from Skipper, adopting an unimpressed look on his face.

"So, what kind of wager do you have in mind, my friend?"

Although Skipper gave an involuntary twitch at the mention of Julien and him being friends, he chose to ignore that feeling and continue speaking.

"Now, to be honest, I don't know why I'm even bothering to do this, considering I'm almost positive I'm going to win, but I'm gonna give you one single day to remain completely silent. I mean it too, Ringtail. Not. One. Word."

"And why would I want to do dat?" asked Julien.

"Let me finish, Ringtail. If you can manage to remain silent from now until closing time tomorrow, I'll let you three spend the night inside our HQ, and we'll spend the night inside your place."

Shocked, both Kowalski and Private turned to face Skipper, surprised that he would do something so brazen.

"Skipper, why? We can't let these three run around in there with the amount of dangerous stuff we have in there! They'll end up getting themselves killed! Imagine all the stuff they'll do to my lab!" said Kowalski.

Skipper was so confident in his chances at winning, he simply walked over and patted Kowalski on the shoulder.

"Don't you worry, Kowalski. I doubt it'll happen anyway. Your lab's safe."

Although Kowalski didn't trust Skipper's judgment for a moment, he chose to remain silent, a worried look on his face as he tried not to freak out.

"So, what happens if Julien can't stay quiet?" asked Maurice.

"Easy. We get to have you two as our servants for the entire next day." said Skipper as he pointed towards him and Mort.

However, instead of readily agreeing to Skipper's plan, Maurice walked over to where Skipper was standing, whispering so that Julien and Mort couldn't hear him.

"Uh, are you sure that's a smart idea? I've been at his side for years, and he can't take care of himself for a few minutes, let alone an entire day!"

"Alright, fine. We'll take Maurice if we win. Ringtail, you can still have Sad Eyes."

Although King Julien wasn't exactly happy with the prospect of being alone with Mort, the allure of spending a night inside the penguin HQ was too much to overcome.

"You are on!"

Both Skipper and Julien shook to seal the deal.

"Great! Now, I want to make sure that there's nothing shady going on, so Kowalski's going to be keeping a close eye on you three."

"Wait, me?" asked Kowalski as he turned towards his commander.

"Yeah, you. Rico already had his turn, and I don't think Private's best for this kind of job, so you'll have to do."

Although Kowalski wasn't completely happy with having to babysit Julien, he sighed in defeat.

"Alright Skipper, I'll keep watch over them."

"Good. Now, the only problem is that we're gonna need Kowalski back when the zoo's open, so we need someone to watch Ringtail then."

"I can do it." said Maurice.

Skipper stared at the aye-aye, eyeing him up as he wasn't sure whether to let him do it.

"Don't worry, Skipper. I'll let you know if he says something. Honest!"

Skipper still wasn't completely comfortable with letting Maurice do it considering the prize he had hanging over their heads, but he knew that he had no other options.

"Alright, you can do it, but if I find any kind of reason not to completely trust your judgment, I'm gonna automatically disqualify Ringtail. You got that?"

Maurice nodded, but he was interrupted by Julien before he could voice his agreement.

"Ugh, fine, if it will be getting you off of my back!"

"Great, because it starts now."

Julien opened his mouth, intending to say something else, but when he noticed the pointed look that Skipper gave him, he shut his mouth again, remaining silent.

"Oh, this is going to be interesting." said Skipper, gleefully rubbing his flippers together.

This earned him a dirty glare from the king, but Skipper wasn't paying attention, as he was already facing the rest of his team.

"Private, Rico, let's head for Alice's office. Kowalski, you have your orders."

Kowalski saluted, but when the other three penguins disappeared from their sight, the scientist dropped his salute, sighing in disgust.

"What is this world coming to when a penguin of science has to bring himself down to the level of babysitting these simpletons?" he said to himself.

Sighing once again, he walked over to the smoothie bar, sitting down on one of the bar stools and turning towards the lemurs, leaning his head against one of his flippers as he rested on the counter.

"Don't mind me, you three. Just go about your business. I'll be over here." he said, absent-mindedly waving his other flipper towards the three lemurs.

Julien and Maurice traded looks as they took in the scene in front of them, but it didn't take long for Julien to once again start asserting his authority. However, as he was about to tell Maurice to get him a smoothie, he immediately clamped his hands over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything.

"Um, something wrong, your majesty?" asked Maurice, confused.

As much as Julien wanted to just focus on remaining silent so that he and the others could get that night inside the penguin HQ, all that talking he did before the cutoff made him parched, so he knew he had to figure out a way to tell him without speaking.

As Maurice continued to wait and see what Julien wanted, the king quickly looked around the room, trying to think of a plan. Eventually, he decided that charades would be the best option, so he began making random signals, hoping that Maurice would figure it out.

Unfortunately for Julien, he was pretty terrible at charades, so his signals pretty much meant nothing, and it only ended up confusing Maurice more. Thankfully Julien was smart enough to realize when a plan wasn't working, so he sighed and walked over to where Kowalski was sitting, pointing angrily at the smoothie maker.

"Oh! You wanted a smoothie! Well, why didn't you say so?"

Julien nearly face palmed, realizing that this remaining silent thing was going to be much tougher than he thought.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day for Julien went exactly as he expected it would. With him being unable to speak, he had no way to order his two subjects around, so it essentially meant that he had no power over them.<p>

This even led to the point where even Mort was taking advantage of it as well.

Julien was sitting on his throne, bored out of his mind with being unable to completely perform his kingly duties, when a small brown blur suddenly flew out of nowhere, latching on to his foot.

Caught off guard, Julien ended up falling out of his throne into a heap on the ground. When he managed to recollect himself and pick himself off of the ground, he looked down and found the mouse lemur cuddling his foot like usual.

Julien opened his mouth, intending to berate him for daring to touch his feet, but he looked up and saw Kowalski staring at him, despite not having moved from his original position.

Closing his mouth once again, Julien resorted to just kicking Mort off of him, but to the king's surprise, Mort simply latched on again.

Confused and wondering why Mort was being so daring, Julien decided it was probably best to just get Maurice to pull him off. So, hopping on one foot, Julien managed to make his way over to the smoothie bar where Maurice was busy cleaning.

Rapping his knuckles on the counter, he managed to get Maurice's attention as he lifted his foot, showing him the brown ball of fur that was attached to it.

"Mort, what are you doing down there? You know that Julien doesn't like it when you touch his feet without permission."

Mort reluctantly released his iron grip on Julien's leg, setting himself down in front of the king as he intended to ask for permission.

"Um, King Julien, can I please touch your feet?"

Mort waited for an answer, not realizing that Julien couldn't speak. Julien, though, could only give Maurice a dark look before Mort faced the aye-aye.

"He didn't say no."

Maurice looked back at Julien, who was vehemently shaking his head no, but Maurice decided to have a little fun.

"That is definitely true, Mort. Go on ahead."

"Yay!"

Mort immediately latched back on to Julien's foot, shuddering as he took it all in.

As for Julien himself, he gave Maurice the darkest look he could muster before hopping back to his throne.

Thankfully for Julien's sanity, the rest of the day went by smoothly, and once the sun fell, he decided to go to bed early, wanting to get an early start so that he could prepare for the zoo to open again.

So, as he lied down on the bouncy and placed his sleeping mask over his eyes, he scratched an itch on his leg using his other foot, nearly bumping into Mort, who was still attached to the king's leg.

At this point, though, Julien decided just to ignore the presence of Mort on his foot, hoping that he would let go eventually.

Mentally sighing, Julien closed his eyes, hoping that he would be able to make it through to closing time tomorrow so that this could all end.

* * *

><p>The next day did eventually come, and while Julien was at least somewhat happy that a new day was upon them, he soon realized that there was still quite a bit of time left before he was free to speak again.<p>

Looking down, he mentally sighed in relief as he noticed the lack of Mort on his foot. Apparently the mouse lemur must have gotten his fill, which Julien was totally willing to take as an answer, considering Mort would hopefully leave him alone.

As Julien sat up and began getting ready for the day, he noticed that Kowalski was gone, most likely meaning that he must have returned to the other penguins. With him gone and Maurice still asleep for the moment, Julien considered saying something to get it out of his system, but then he realized that with it being this early in the morning, it was quiet enough that he may still be heard.

Sighing, Julien sat down on his throne, waiting for the humans to arrive so that he could entertain them and get the day over with.

* * *

><p>Thankfully, both Maurice and Mort decided to leave Julien well enough alone, although Maurice still was close enough so that he could keep an eye on him. He did still have to perform his duties.<p>

When the zoo finally opened and the humans came filing in, Julien hopped off of his throne, pumping himself up as he got ready to perform.

Thankfully for him, keeping the humans entertained without speaking was surprisingly pretty easy for him, mostly because he barely spoke anyway, which was honestly out of character for him.

However, his mind wasn't entirely on the performance, as he also had one eye on the clock, waiting anxiously for closing time so that he could finally speak once more.

This led to a lot of confused looks from the people standing in front of them, as they were all used to the energy he brought to his performances. Thankfully, though, Maurice and Mort were there to pick up the slack, as they put out more effort than they usually do.

Eventually, the activities around the zoo began to wind down as closing time came near. The lemurs were busy continuing to entertain the stragglers, but by this point the three of them were starting to get worn out from the long day.

Finally, the remaining people soon left to go to another habitat, and Julien took the chance to look at the clock, counting down the seconds to closing time.

*BONG*

"Yes! I have done it! Pack your bags, my subjects. We are spending de night inside de penguin's house!"

Instead of being excited, though, Maurice just looked exasperated.

"Uh, King Julien, you do realize that it's not officially closing time until the bell stops ringing, right?"

Julien looked at Maurice, wondering what he was talking about, when he suddenly realized that the bell was indeed still ringing; stopping a few moments after Maurice stopped talking.

Having messed up his only chance to get to spend the night inside the penguin HQ, Julien desperately tried to think of a way out.

"Maurice! You have got to tell de penguins that I have kept quiet. It is de only way that we can get dat night inside de penguin's house!"

"I can't do that, your majesty! I'm a terrible liar, and you heard what Skipper said. He catches us lying, he's gonna disqualify you anyway!"

"Oh come on, Maurice! Do it for your king!"

"You don't need to. I've heard him loud and clear."

Both Maurice and Mort turned to where the voice was coming from and saw Skipper and the other penguins, the former looking quite smug now that he was proved right. Julien, desperate to get another chance, resorted to getting down on his knees as he tried to convince Skipper.

"I'm sorry, I am not being used to this, but please give me another chance! If Maurice would have told me dat de zoo closes once de bell stops ringing, I would have still kept my mouth shut."

Julien glared at Maurice to emphasize his point, earning a surprised look from the aye-aye, who remained silent. Skipper, however, was having none of Julien's begging.

"No dice, Ringtail. You know the rules."

Julien considered trying to convince one of the other penguins to change Skipper's mind, but even he was smart enough to know that wouldn't be likely. So, as he sighed in defeat, he stood up and went over to Maurice, pushing him towards the penguins.

"Here, you can have him. I won't be liking it, but dem's de breaks, I guess."

"I'm glad that we have this understanding, Ringtail. Now come on, Maurice, we have a couple of things that we'd like you to do."

Reluctantly, Maurice began following the penguins, glancing back at the other two lemurs before finally disappearing over the habitat wall.

As Julien watched Maurice go, he sighed once again before heading back to his throne, but not before Mort spoke up from off to the side.

"Can I massage your feet?"

Julien considered berating Mort now that he could speak again, but he decided not to, instead simply kicking him out of the habitat so that he could have some alone time sitting on his throne.


	19. Girlfriend (Kowalski)

**Chapter 19 – Girlfriend (Kowalski's Story)**

It was yet another beautiful day at the zoo, and the penguins were spending it as they usually do. While they were much more rested then they usually were thanks to the day that they had Maurice as their servant, this didn't stop Skipper from wanting to keep the team as physically fit as he could manage.

So after completing a pretty grueling training session, the other three penguins hopped out of the pool and sat down to catch their breaths before having to get ready for the day ahead of them.

The silence was soon broken, however, as Kowalski decided to speak up.

"You know, Skipper, I completely forgot to ask about this until now, but did you three ever manage to figure out the identity of our new zoomate?"

"Unfortunately, no. The lemurs managed to delay us enough that Alice's office was already locked up tight by the time we got there."

"Well, why didn't you just pick the lock? I'm sure Rico probably had a hairpin or something."

"I already had that plan in mind, Kowalski. Unfortunately, when we got in, the computer was also locked up tight, and you're the only one capable of hacking into something that fortified. So, essentially, the mission was a bust."

"That's a shame. I was interested to see who would be joining us."

"We did manage to find something that may help, though!" said Private from off to the side.

Curious, Kowalski turned towards the young penguin.

"And what would that be, Private?"

Private was about ready to answer when Skipper suddenly butted back in to the conversation.

"You know, I think it might be a good idea for us to continue this conversation back down below. Don't want any prying eyes seeing anything they're not supposed to."

Kowalski stared at Skipper for a moment before reluctantly nodding.

"Yes, I would have to agree. Let's head back to the HQ."

The four penguins headed back down the ladder into the HQ, Skipper scanning the area around them for any intruders before covering the hole above them.

* * *

><p>When the penguins finally hopped down into the HQ, Skipper walked over to the table, where a manila envelope was sitting. As Skipper began opening said envelope and retrieving the documents inside, Kowalski couldn't help but notice the large CLASSIFIED stamp on it.<p>

"Uh, Skipper, shouldn't classified documents like that be secured a little better than just keeping it out in the open? Where anyone can read it?"

"Thank you, Kowalski, I'm well aware of that fact. I've only just put this file together last night, and I haven't had a chance to put it away. Once you've viewed the contents, then I'll lock it away."

Kowalski gave his commander a weird look for a second before walking over to the table and looking at the photos that Skipper spread on to the table.

"Those look like some sort of metal plates. I'm not sure what Alice would need with that much metal."

"Maybe it's part of the habitat for the new animal?" said Private.

Kowalski paused for a moment, considering Private's suggestion.

"You know, that could be the case. The only question is what kind of habitat are they making?"

The room fell silent, as the penguins tried to think of ideas. Unfortunately, with the lack of clues that they had, they had no chance of doing so.

Sighing, Skipper turned towards the rest of his team.

"Alright men, I think we know what we have to do."

"We do?" asked Private, confused.

"Yes, we do! We're gonna have to go over to where the habitat is and see for ourselves who this new arrival is."

"You know, that's not such a bad idea. They're bound to have finished it by now. At least, I suppose that would be the case."

"Well, come on then! We don't have much time before the zoo opens!"

The penguins quickly hopped back up the ladder, every one of them looking forward to meeting their new zoomate.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, finding the new zoomate turned out to be a little more challenging than they thought at first.<p>

"You know, I'm surprised that they would be able to fit a new habitat in here with how much the zoo has been filled up." pointed out Kowalski as the penguins continued to walk along the path.

"Don't worry, K'walski! I'm sure that we're gonna find our new friend soon enough!" said Private, who was really starting to get into finding the new habitat.

"I do appreciate the positive outlook, Private, but I'm beginning to think that I might have been wrong about the habitat being finished."

Kowalski soon became lost in thought as he tried to figure out when the new animal would arrive if they haven't already, when a voice suddenly called out from a habitat they just passed without noticing.

"Hi, Kowalski!"

"Hello, Doris."

Kowalski walked a few more steps before stopping in his tracks, his train of thought coming to a crashing halt. He slowly turned his head towards where the sound came from to find Doris the dolphin, leaning out of a decently-sized water tank.

"D-d-Doris?" he said, his brain unable to process the presence of his crush inside the confines of the zoo.

As Kowalski continued to sputter incoherently, he was only able to catch the worried look from Doris before he finally fainted.

"Um, is he alright?" asked Doris, concerned for Kowalski's well-being.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine. I think he's just surprised to see you again." said Skipper.

Skipper soon realized that they should probably be getting back to their habitat before the zoo opened, so he turned towards Rico, who had a blank stare on his face as he looked at the out cold analyst.

"Rico, stop staring at him and pick him up! We need to get back to the HQ ASAP, and we've got to pick up the slack with Kowalski down."

Rico saluted, grabbing Kowalski by the flippers and hefting him up on to his back.

"Let's move!"

The penguins began heading back towards their habitat, leaving Doris wondering if Kowalski was okay.

* * *

><p>With Rico having to carry Kowalski, the penguins' trip back to the habitat was a little slower than they would have liked, but they did manage to make it back with some time to spare.<p>

After Skipper and Private hopped back over the fence, Rico was about to do so as well when he realized that he still had Kowalski on his back. He stared at the fence above him for a moment, trying to figure out what to do.

"Come on, Rico! We don't have time for any daydreaming!" yelled Skipper as he looked over the railing at the two of them.

Shrugging, Rico roughly threw Kowalski over the railing, barely missing Skipper as the commander dodged out of the way.

Thankfully, Rico put enough juice in his throw that Kowalski overshot the fake iceberg and landed in the water, sending a small fountain of water into the air.

"Hey, watch where you're throwing things, Rico!" said Skipper as the weapons expert hopped over the railing to join the others.

Despite Skipper being annoyed at nearly getting a face full of Kowalski, Rico's thoughts were on how cool it was to watch Kowalski fly through the air, and he was barely paying attention to what Skipper was saying.

Knowing that it probably wasn't worth it to try and talk sense into the manic penguin, Skipper sighed before walking over to the edge of the iceberg near where Kowalski landed.

"Hey, Kowalski! You awake down there?" he yelled, thinking that Kowalski would hear him.

Thankfully, seconds later, Kowalski breached the surface of the water, gasping as he pulled himself on to the iceberg.

"Here, sir."

"Good. Now, get ready. The zoo's about to open."

"Wait, hang on! What happened? The last thing I remember was thinking that I saw Doris, and then everything went black."

"Not the time, Kowalski. We'll discuss this at closing time." said Skipper.

Kowalski still really wanted to know what happened, but with the stern look Skipper was giving him, he figured it was probably best to keep quiet. So, after catching his breath and collecting his thoughts, he assumed his position just as the zoo opened and the humans began to file in.

* * *

><p>Once closing time came along, and the humans finally filed out of the zoo at the end of another day, Kowalski didn't waste any time as he turned towards the others.<p>

"Now someone really needs to explain to me what happened this morning! Is Doris really at the zoo now, or was I just seeing things?"

"That was definitely Doris, unless something's up and that was just a cybernetic dolphin sent by Blowhole to spy on us!" said Skipper.

Kowalski chose to ignore Skipper's paranoia acting up, instead glancing off in the direction of Doris's habitat with a wistful look on his face.

"Um, are you alright, K'walski? You don't seem like your usual self when Doris is around." said Private, noticing the look the analyst had on.

"I'm quite alright, Private. Why do you ask?"

Kowalski attempted to adopt a nonplussed look on his face, hoping that Private wouldn't see the torment he was going through, but he managed to see right through it. However, instead of calling him out on it, Private gave Kowalski a disappointed look after realizing that he was trying to hide his true feelings again.

After a few seconds of desperately trying to look away from the hurt look on the young penguin, Kowalski finally broke.

"Alright, I'll tell you Private. Just please stop with the waterworks."

Although Private was slightly annoyed that he has to resort to guilt-tripping Kowalski to get answers out of him, he remained silent as he listened to Kowalski explain himself.

"Do you remember when we stopped Blowhole from completing Project Bad Tidings?"

"Yeah, I do. I remember that was when you and Doris first got together."

"Well, as I'm sure you guys remember, things kind of fell apart. The long-distance relationship, combined with all of the missions that we've been doing meant that we haven't had any time to spend together."

Private's expression faltered, his heart breaking as he listened to Kowalski relive the bad memories.

"Anyway, I'm sure you guys know what happened between then and now."

Skipper shuddered, remembering the unpleasantness of cleanup duty after Kowalski's last bout of depression.

"Seeing her again after finally getting over her…it's tough. There's probably a good chance that things are going to be awkward between us now that we're gonna be in the same zoo."

With Kowalski finished, Private paused as he took in Kowalski's heartfelt explanation. After giving it some thought, though, his expression noticeably brightened as he realized that they could do something about Kowalski's problem.

"Don't worry, K'walski! We'll help you get back together with Doris!"

Caught off guard, Kowalski's eyes widened before he managed to speak.

"Private, you don't have to do this! I'm sure that we can still remain friends…somehow."

"Don't be silly. Of course we'll help you. Right, Skippah?"

Private looked expectantly over at his commander, who immediately backed up, holding his flippers up in defense.

"Whoa, hold on there, Private! I never applied to be a matchmaker."

Despite Skipper wanting to remain out of it, Private was undeterred.

"Come on, Skippah, I know you and Rico would love to be able to put the two of them back together. Besides, are you sure you want to deal with K'walski being distracted all the time on missions?"

Skipper paused as he considered what Private said. While he was still opposed to the idea of being involved with mushy love stuff, the fact that Kowalski could have Doris on his mind while on missions was a fact that he couldn't ignore.

Sighing in defeat, he turned towards Private.

"Alright, you win. I'll help you out. You know you can be really devious when you want to, Private."

"I can?"

"Never mind."

Satisfied that he managed to convince Skipper, Private turned towards the only penguin yet to agree.

"So, how about you, Rico? Are you in?"

Rico thought for a moment before giving his answer.

"Umm…okae. Why no'?" he said, shrugging.

Giddy, Private shivered before finally speaking.

"Oh, this is going to be so smashing! I can't wait to help K'walski out with you guys!"

Although Kowalski was still not entirely sure if it would be worth trying to get back together with Doris, Private's enthusiasm was infectious, and he couldn't help but smile as he thought about the possibility of finally getting to spend more time with his former flame.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, things didn't get off to a great start. Skipper wasn't interested in taking the lead on this mission, so he decided to give Private the job since it was his plan. It wasn't Skipper's best decision in the world, considering at Private's young age, his only real experience with love was an episode of the Lunacorns where Princess Self-Respectra and Prince Shares-a-lot needed to fall in love with each other to keep the kingdom from falling into evil hands.<p>

Needless to say, their first attempt was a horrible failure.

Private set up an elaborate performance in front of Doris's tank, with Rico playing the evil one trying to claim the kingdom for himself. Kowalski was the prince, and Skipper was the one who told them that they must fall in love. Private, meanwhile, stayed off to the side, helping out when needed.

Unfortunately, none of the penguins really had any experience in acting, so the performance just turned into an awkward mess. Kowalski attempted to give Doris a look of apology while in the middle of the performance, but that just earned him an awkward look in return.

Finally, having had enough, Kowalski broke character and walked over to Private, leaning over towards one of his earholes.

"This isn't working, Private. We really need another idea."

Private wasn't really paying attention, though, as his focus was on Rico, who was really giving it his all in his performance. Sighing in disgust, Kowalski decided that it was probably best for them to regroup and try again, so he walked over and roughly pushed Rico and Skipper towards Private, despite their protests.

"Sorry, Doris. Didn't mean to waste your time." said Kowalski apologetically.

Kowalski quickly began pushing the others away from Doris, refusing to look back to see how badly this affected his chances with Doris.

* * *

><p>An hour passed as the penguins continued to try many different methods to help Kowalski and Doris get back together, each as much of a failure as the last. They even tried setting up a romantic dinner between the two of them, but when left alone, it was constant silence between them, and it came to the point where Kowalski gave up and left.<p>

Finally, having had enough, Doris decided that now was the time that she needed to speak her mind, so as Kowalski tried to sing her a song that he believed would help, Doris finally spoke up.

"Look Kowalski, I know what you're trying to do, and it really isn't working."

"But…I don't know what else to do."

"Just be yourself. I know that the others have been trying to help, but the things that you've been trying to do are just…so unlike you."

Kowalski thought for a moment back to when they first got together. He knew that it would be a waste of time to try to recreate the battle with Dr. Blowhole and Parker, so the lack of options was becoming pretty apparent to the analyst.

Sighing, Kowalski decided that there was only one course of action that he could take, so he turned towards where the other penguins were and spoke up.

"Would you mind giving the two of us some privacy, you guys? We need to work things out."

Skipper and Rico were only too happy to leave, as they were long past tired of following Private's half-baked plans. Private, however, didn't want to leave, as he was still invested in helping Kowalski out. However, Skipper was there to lead the young penguin away.

Once the other penguins were finally out of earshot, Kowalski sighed before beginning to speak.

"I just wanted to apologize for the way that I've been treating you."

"Oh Kowalski, you don't have to apologize. I know how important keeping the city safe is to you and the guys. I had a feeling things weren't going to work out for long between us."

"No, I really think I should apologize, Doris. I wasn't able to find any time to spend with you. I know all of the missions kept me extremely busy, but that's no excuse."

Kowalski sighed heavily before continuing on.

"Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

Kowalski watched as Doris considered whether to forgive him. When she didn't answer immediately, he began to grow worried.

"Listen, if we can work things out between us, I promise I will do all I can to find time for you."

Doris sighed before finally replying.

"I'd love to believe you, Kowalski, but I really don't think I can."

Kowalski's face fell as the news hit him, but Doris wasn't finished.

"However, I do know that you're still a wonderful friend to me, and I don't want that to end. So…can we still be friends?"

Kowalski was noticeably disappointed that his apology didn't work out the way he intended, but he was definitely in agreement that he didn't want to be completely cut off from her, so as he lifted his head to meet eyes with her, he smiled.

"I'd like to stay friends with you too, Doris."

Kowalski hopped up on to the tank, and the two of them hugged, or at least tried to. It was more like Kowalski hugged her while Doris simply enjoyed it.

Soon enough, Kowalski knew that it was time for him to get back to the HQ, so as he began walking, he turned around towards Doris and waved.

"I'll see you again, Doris. We'll try to visit whenever we can, okay?"

"Okay. Bye, Kowalski!"

His mood noticeably lighter, Kowalski finally began making his way back to the HQ, only to run into the others, who were waiting for him along the way.

"Guys! I thought you all went back to the HQ." said Kowalski, surprised.

"Well, we just wanted to see how you were doing. I know things have been kind of difficult between you and Doris." said Skipper.

"So, how did things go?" asked Private.

"Well…unfortunately, things didn't work out in terms of dating, but she did still want to be friends, so I suppose things did work out in the end."

"Well, that's good. I certainly don't want your business with her to interfere with focusing on our missions." said Skipper.

"I wouldn't worry too much, Skipper. I don't plan to let it."

Satisifed, Skipper nodded, and the four of them began heading back to their habitat. As Kowalski followed them back, he glanced back in the direction of Doris's habitat, thankful that he didn't lose a friend in her.


	20. Brochure (Maurice and Mort)

**Chapter 20 – Brochure (Maurice and Mort's Story)**

It was yet another beautiful day inside the Central Park Zoo. It was just after closing time, and all of the animals were keeping themselves busy while they waited for their chance to really enjoy their free time.

The penguins, for instance, were about ready to head back down into the HQ to get ready for a mission that came up just recently. However, before they could hop down, Alice suddenly walked by, and the four of them quickly adopted their normal cute and cuddly routines.

Alice wasn't really paying attention to them, though; as she was too busy talking on the phone.

"Look Maurice, I don't know if we're gonna be able to afford another photo shoot with the amount of times we've changed the brochure cover…No! We can't just reuse old pictures! The people are going to notice!"

Alice sighed.

"Fine, we'll do it again. Just make sure to let the higher-ups know that if I have to go through yet another photo shoot after this one, I am going to have something to say! And believe me, they won't be very nice."

Disgusted, Alice shut her phone with a loud snap, stuffing it into her pocket as she angrily stomped away.

"Good work, boys. She didn't suspect a thing." said Skipper as he turned towards the rest of the team.

"Well, that is most likely because she wasn't even looking at us." pointed out Kowalski.

"Thank you for the input, Kowalski." said Skipper, giving his second-in-command a glare.

Kowalski just coughed nervously before deciding to change the subject.

"Anyway, did you hear what Alice said? They're doing another photo shoot for the zoo brochure!"

"Really? That sounds like the perfect opportunity for Private to take the cover back from Sad Eyes! How does that sound, Private?"

"Well…as much as I wouldn't mind being on the cover again, wouldn't it be a little…um…not nice to try to take it from Mort?"

"Nonsense, Private! I'm betting the zoo overlords must have thought that it was time for a change from having Sad Eyes on the cover all the time."

"Well, since you put it that way, I suppose I could try, but I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to pull it off myself."

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Private."

"Why's that, Skippah?"

"Because we're gonna help you win it! Isn't that right, boys?"

Kowalski, who was about to head to his lab to work on an experiment he wasn't able to finish, stopped dead in his tracks as he tried to make his way to the hatch.

"Kowalski? Where are you going?" asked Skipper, giving Kowalski a glare.

"Um…down to the lab?"

"Come on, Kowalski, this is for Private. You can do your silly experiments after we've got the zoo brochure cover back."

Kowalski sighed, defeated.

"Alright Skipper, I'll help."

"Good. Now how about you, Rico? Are you up for a little sabotage?"

Private's earholes perked up upon hearing Skipper mention the word sabotage, but before he could speak up about his misgivings, Rico nodded vigorously, and Skipper considered the matter closed.

"Alright men, let's head out!"

The four penguins hopped out of their habitat and headed over to the lemur habitat, intending to do some recon before finally putting their plan into motion.

* * *

><p>Inside the lemur habitat, King Julien was doing what he always does, lounging in his throne while Maurice and Mort fan him with palm tree leaves. However, Julien soon began to notice something was amiss. Annoyed, he looked down from his perch and found that both of his subjects weren't fully putting themselves into the fanning.<p>

"What is de meaning of dis? I am not feeling de wind on my beautiful face. Why am I not feeling de wind on my face?"

The one thing that Julien failed to notice when asking that question was that Maurice and Mort were completely tired out. Julien was very particular about the speed at which Maurice and Mort were to wave their fans so that he could get the perfect amount of air on his face, so it took a while for him to finally be satisfied.

Unfortunately, with the two subjects being as worn out as they were, there was little chance for Julien to get back to the amount of wind he liked. Sighing, he looked towards the sky for a moment, wishing he had better subjects.

"Alright, if you want to be taking a break, I suppose dat your king will let you have one."

Maurice and Mort immediately dropped their fans, collapsing to the ground as they were finally given a chance to rest. However, they didn't really get much of a chance, though, as Alice walked by, or at least she attempted to before her phone rang again.

Sighing, Alice pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened it.

"What do you want?...I thought we went through this already! Look, just pick the animal that you think is best and take a picture of it. It's that easy!...What do you mean being on the brochure cover is more important than that?...I don't care, just do it!"

Alice snapped her phone closed once more, sticking it back in her pocket as she angrily stomped off.

As for the lemurs, they heard pretty much everything Alice said, and Maurice turned towards Mort.

"Mort, did you hear what she said?"

"Umm…no. What did the nice lady say?"

Maurice sighed, wondering whether anything gets through that little skull of his.

"It looks like they're looking for a new animal to be on the cover of the zoo brochure. We need to convince them that you're still the best choice for it, and we're gonna help you! Isn't that right, your majesty?"

"What? Are you kidding? Why would I want to support him when I can show dem dat I am de best choice for de picturey ting?"

Although Maurice was slightly annoyed that King Julien wasn't willing to help, he was well aware of the fact that it wasn't worth it to try to convince the lemur king to help, so he picked himself up and headed over to Mort.

"Come on, Mort. We need to get you lookin' good if you're gonna keep the cover."

"Ooh, that sounds fun!" said Mort gleefully as he followed Maurice.

As for King Julien, he stared at the retreating forms of Maurice and Mort for a few moments, considering whether he should try to get them to help.

"Well fine! Don't help your king become de next superstar! I can get de picture all by my lonesome!"

Huffing, King Julien turned away from the other lemurs, heading towards his throne as he prepared to wow the judges.

* * *

><p>After managing to find a private area, Maurice turned towards Mort, pausing as he considered the best course of action.<p>

"Alright Mort, we're gonna need something big if you're gonna keep the cover. Just being your normal self isn't going to cut it."

"Ooh, I like how this is going!" said Mort.

Maurice chose not to reply to Mort's comment, instead remaining silent as he took in the picture of Mort in front of him. Finally, an idea came to him, and he snapped his fingers as he began speaking.

"Aha, I've got it! We're gonna have to make you extra cute! That'll blow them all away!"

Mort just looked on as Maurice began talking to himself, formulating a plan to enhance Mort's adorability.

"Come on, Mort. We're gonna need some supplies."

Not wanting to waste any valuable time, Maurice decided to grab Mort's hand and pull the mouse lemur with him instead of letting Mort follow him.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of traveling, the two lemurs found themselves in front of Marlene's habitat. Having just crossed the pool of water separating the otter from the edge of the habitat, Maurice and Mort were noticeably waterlogged, but Maurice was more focused on getting what he had planned done, so he tried his best to ignore the wet dog smell coming from him as he called into the cave.<p>

"Hello? Marlene? Are you in there?"

Nothing happened at first, which made Maurice think that she might not be home. As he was about to leave, though, Marlene suddenly popped out of the cave.

"Hey guys. What's up?"

Maurice didn't answer immediately as he wasn't exactly sure how careful he should be when broaching the subject. He still remembered Marlene's sleepwalking incident, and while he didn't really know exactly what Marlene felt about it, he didn't want to risk getting Rico sent after him again.

Thankfully, though, she looked like her normal perky self, so Maurice decided it was probably a good time to ask.

"Hey Marlene, we were wondering if you had any…um…makeup or something that we could borrow?"

"Uh…okay. What are you guys up to?" she asked, giving Maurice a weird look.

"Well, they're looking to change the cover of the zoo brochure, and I've been trying to help Mort convince the humans that he should stay on there. So, I'm hoping that I could pretty Mort up some more so that he could be extra cute, at least compared to how he normally is."

Marlene was still noticeably put off by the measures that Maurice was going to, but she tried her best not to let it get to her.

"Look, even if I did have any beauty products, I wouldn't give them to you anyway. You guys really need to figure out better ways to spend your free time."

"Oh come on, Marlene! Can't you at least point us to someone who has some makeup?"

Marlene paused, looking at Maurice for a moment before finally sighing.

"I've heard Pinky talking about getting ready for a date tonight. I'm guessing she must have some sort of makeup. I'd move quickly, though. It sounds like she's not gonna be around for long."

Grateful for the information, Maurice grabbed Mort's hand before rushing off.

"Thanks for the help, Marlene!"

Marlene awkwardly waved for a moment or two before sighing, rolling her eyes before heading back into her cave.

* * *

><p>Maurice wasn't willing to risk missing his chance to ask Pinky for her makeup, so he was running as fast he could manage while dragging Mort behind him. With how fast the aye-aye was going, though, Mort wasn't even on the ground anymore, as he was waving up and down in the air while clutching Maurice's hand.<p>

Finally, the two of them reached the flamingo habitat, and Maurice somehow managed to sigh in relief through all of the air he was trying to suck in when he saw that Pinky was still there.

"Hey Maurice. What's going on? You look like you've ran a mile."

Maurice didn't answer immediately; as he was too busy trying to catch his breath. Finally, once he was able to breathe easily, he stood up and addressed Pinky.

"Sorry about that. I needed to see you before you left on your date."

"Who told you I was going on a date?" she asked, giving Maurice a weird look.

"Marlene. Anyway, I was hoping that we could borrow your makeup if you happen to have any. I need to up Mort's cuteness so that the humans don't take the cover of the zoo brochure away from him."

"Uh, don't you think that you're taking this the wrong way, you guys? Putting makeup on him is just gonna make him look weird. Besides, you're guys. Guys don't wear makeup."

"Can't you just make an exception, just this once?" asked Maurice, having not listened to a word Pinky said.

Pinky sighed, figuring that there was no point in trying to get them to understand.

"Look, I'd love to help you guys, but my makeup kit's disappeared! I've been trying to look for it for the past half an hour, and there's no sign of it."

"Really? Who would want to take it?"

"If I knew, would I really be standing here freaking out about it?" said Pinky, giving Maurice an annoyed look.

Disappointed that he lost out on the makeup, Maurice figured that he was going to have to go in a different direction if he wanted to help Mort out, so he began walking away, lost in thought as he tried to figure out another plan.

As for Pinky, she stood there, slightly annoyed that Maurice didn't show any respect for her plight. She decided, though, to just ignore him and return to searching for her kit, hoping that her date wouldn't be mad.

* * *

><p>As Maurice and Mort headed back to their habitat, Maurice was still very much lost in thought as he tried to figure out another way to help Mort out. The two of them attempted many different methods to help accentuate Mort's sheer adorability, but nothing seemed to pan out, mostly because of the fact that anything that they've tried to borrow from other animals was somehow missing from their belongings.<p>

"I don't understand. How could everyone have lost something in this short of a time frame?" asked Maurice, exasperated.

"Oh, I know! Maybe we should find who took that stuff!" said Mort as he watched Maurice sit down and put his head into his hands.

"I would do that, but there's no time. King Julien said that the judges are going to be here any minute!"

Mort opened his mouth for another quip, but before he could say anything, an idea somehow managed to pop into his tiny head.

"Ooh, I have an idea!"

Surprised, Maurice turned to look at Mort, waiting for him to spit it out. However, what Mort ended up saying made him face palm.

"Um…I forgot what it was."

Maurice sighed, defeated.

"Let's just head back home, Mort. I'm sure whoever gets the cover is really going to deserve it."

Maurice hopped back up on to his feet, heading back towards the lemur habitat while Mort followed behind him, still quite oblivious to what was going on around him.

* * *

><p>Once Maurice and Mort finally returned to their habitat, they were met by King Julien, who was currently doing some random poses that Maurice had no idea was about.<p>

"Uh, your majesty? What are you doing?"

"Ssh! I am doing what dey call Tai Chi. I heard someone say dat it is supposed to mentally prepare you for what is ahead, which in dis case is when I win de cover of de brochure."

Although Maurice had no idea what Julien meant by Tai Chi, he decided not to bother asking.

"Uh, okay. You do that. Mort and I will be over at the juice bar."

"Oh! Dat is de perfectest of timing! Your king is thirsty from all de Tai Chi, so he demands a mango smoothie before he performs for de judges!"

Even though Maurice wanted to wallow in his failures in helping Mort out, he knew that he couldn't refuse an order from King Julien, so he walked over to the bar and began making the smoothie.

However, he had no real chance to complete it, though, as two people came through their area of the zoo. One of them was obviously Alice, who didn't look too happy that she was still here and not at home. The other person had a camera around his neck, so Maurice assumed that it must be the judge.

Shutting the smoothie mixer off, Maurice walked around to the other side of the bar and sat down on one of the stools, deciding to watch as King Julien did his performance.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a wait, though, as Alice and the judge was currently in front of the penguin habitat. Maurice watched as Private did his normal cute and cuddly routine while Skipper barked orders in the background. He heard Skipper mention the word "hypercute" a few times, but nothing came from it, so Maurice decided to forget about trying to figure out what it meant.

Once Private was done with his routine, Maurice watched as the judge wrote some things on to his clipboard before walking over to the lemur habitat. King Julien immediately perked up, and launched into his planned performance right as they walked up. This earned him a bit of a weird look from Alice, but she didn't say anything, choosing to let her mind wander as she thought about what she was going to eat once she got home.

Finally, King Julien finished his performance and took his bow, backing off so that he could give the humans their space. However, once he made his way behind a palm tree so that he was hidden from view, Julien kept a close ear on the proceedings as he listened to what the two of them said.

"Is that all of them?" asked the judge.

"Pretty much. I narrowed it down to the best ones a few hours ago, and the two that I showed you were the ones."

The judge sighed, not liking the lack of choice. However, before he could make a move to decide between Private and King Julien, he noticed Mort out of the corner of his eye.

Turning to face him, he watched as the mouse lemur was busy playing with his tail, even chewing on it a bit.

"Hey, isn't that the animal we used for the last picture?"

"Yeah, that's the mouse lemur. Why? Didn't you say that you wanted to change the animal on the cover?" asked Alice, confused.

"Yeah I did, but…I'm not really hugely impressed with the crop of animals that you've given me. I'm beginning to think that we should hold off on making that change, at least for now."

Annoyed at being held up at work for no reason, Alice considered chewing out the judge for a moment, but she thought better of it, choosing to begin shooing him out of the zoo so that she could close down.

"Alright then, if that's the way you want it, I guess there's no reason for you to be here any longer! Bye!"

Despite the photographer's protests at wanting a new shot for Mort, Alice managed to get him through the gates, shutting it and locking it behind her as she headed towards her office to grab her belongings.

As for Maurice, he continued to sit at the juice bar, staring blankly at where Alice and the judge were originally as he contemplated what just happened.

"Wow, I guess things must have worked out on their own. Works for me, I suppose."

Shrugging, Maurice returned to working on the smoothie as King Julien lamented his loss in the background, a smile on his face as he was happy for Mort retaining possession of the cover.

As for the penguins, things weren't exactly as hunky-dory as the lemurs.

"Why didn't you do the hypercute, Private? We would have had that cover in the bag!" said Skipper.

"Hey, I promised myself that I would never do that again. Nothing is going to convince me otherwise." said Private, sounding surprisingly defiant for someone of his personality.

Skipper sighed.

"Oh well, I guess there's always next time. Come on, men, we need to return all of the stuff we swiped before the others get any ideas."


	21. Kaboom (Rico)

**Chapter 21 – Kaboom (Rico's Story)**

It was yet another beautiful day inside the Central Park Zoo. It was just after closing time, and the penguins were using their free time to get some training in.

"Come on, men! Let's hustle!"

Skipper was busy giving as much encouragement to the rest of his team as he could as they did power laps around the pool.

"Kowalski, you'd better not be slacking down there!"

Although Skipper was unsure if the others would be able to hear him with how deep in the water they were, he still felt that they needed some help.

Finally, Skipper held up a whistle to his beak and blew, signaling for everyone that they were done.

Exhausted, Kowalski, Private and Rico managed to pull themselves on to the fake iceberg before collapsing to the ground.

"Nice work, boys! I think we'll just need a few more sessions of these, and we'll be able to take on anything!"

The other three penguins groaned in protest, but thankfully Skipper was too preoccupied with heading towards the hatch to notice. When he reached the hatch, though, he noticed the fact that they haven't moved from where they came up, and he gave them all a curious look.

"Are you guys coming or what? The yearly Shirtless Ninja marathon starts in a half an hour!"

"To be honest, I'd rather just rest here for a while. I'll join you guys a little later, alright?"

Kowalski managed to pull his head up to look at the others as he waited for an answer. However, he was slightly surprised to find neither Private nor Rico had moved an inch either.

"I think you've got the right idea, K'walski. How about you, Rico?" asked Private.

Rico simply grunted, too exhausted to speak.

Skipper shook his head as he watched the other three penguins try to catch their breath.

"Welp, suit yourself. Guess I've got some more action just for little ol' me, then."

Skipper was about to kick the food bowl aside and head down the hatch when Julien suddenly appeared, landing right between Skipper and the other penguins as he gestured emphatically towards the sky.

"Hello, silly penguins!"

Skipper, however, wasn't completely paying attention to who was in front of him, as he was too busy thinking about all of the shirtless ninjas he was about to see. So, when his foot made contact with the fish bowl, it sent it forwards with enough velocity to sweep Julien off of his feet, his booty landing right inside the bowl which thankfully prevented the king from a hard landing.

"Wha-Ringtail! What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to interrupt us when we're training!" said Skipper, finally noticing the lemur in front of him thanks to the thunk Julien made landing in the bowl.

"Well, I was going to be asking you a small favor before you tripped me and made me fall on de royal booty! Now, I am not knowing if I am going to ask about de favor!"

Skipper watched as Julien picked himself up off of the ground, dusting himself off before he realized that the fish bowl was still stuck on his bottom.

"Maurice! Get over here and get dis ting off of my booty!"

Skipper looked over towards the lemur habitat, expecting to see Maurice rushing over to help, but just as the aye-aye was about to climb over the fence, Skipper heard a popping noise.

"Uh, your majesty? It looks like Private's already got that for you."

Both Skipper and Julien looked over and saw that Private indeed had the fish bowl in his flippers, free from being filled with Julien's posterior.

"Oh, thank you, nice penguin! I can finally shake my royal booty once more without having dat dumb bowl thing around it!"

"No problem, King Julien! Happy to help!"

Skipper then awkwardly cleared his throat, looking for a way to change the subject before it got too mushy.

"Anyway…let's get back on topic. What's this favor you've been babbling on about?"

Julien looked at Skipper for a moment, confused, before suddenly remembering what he was originally here for.

"Oh, dat's right! I need to borrow de crazy penguin for a little bit."

"And what, pray tell, would you need Rico for?" asked Skipper as he gave Julien a wary look.

Instead of answering, though, Julien simply pointed towards his habitat, and the penguins looked in surprise as they saw what was in front of them.

"Kowalski? Analysis?" asked Skipper as he looked towards his second-in-command, who by this point had stood up and joined the others.

Kowalski took a moment to study the scene in front of him before replying.

"It appears that there's another billboard hanging near Julien's habitat, and judging from the amount of lightbulbs that I can see from here, it looks like it's probably going to be pretty bright once nighttime hits."

"Exactly! And dat is why I need to use Kico-"

"Rico." corrected Skipper.

"Whatever. Dat is why I need to be using him to blow it up again so I can get my royal beauty sleep!"

"Not happening, Ringtail. You know what happened the last time Rico's violent tendencies weren't reined in."

Julien did in fact remember Rico nearly destroying his habitat, but his need for a sufficient amount of sleep overrode the downsides in his mind, so as much as Julien's pride didn't want him to resort to it, he got down to his knees and began begging.

"Please! I cannot be as beautiful as I am right now without my beauty sleep!"

Skipper immediately saw through Julien's poor attempt at begging, turning towards Rico, who had also joined the group after getting his rest.

"Rico, kick him out, please."

"Okay!"

Rico immediately headed towards Julien, who was too busy continuing to beg to notice the psychotic penguin heading his way. After picking the lemur up and placing him back down with him facing his habitat, Rico walked back a few steps before football punting Julien over the fence.

Skipper watched as Julien completely cleared the fence, landing right on top of his throne, which somehow didn't collapse despite the rough landing.

"Nice work, Rico! That was a pinpoint landing right there." he said, impressed.

Rico simply chuckled, happy to receive a compliment from his commanding officer.

"Now let's get going. We might have missed the beginning of the marathon, but at least we'll still get our shirtless ninja fix."

Skipper headed towards the hatch, glancing behind him and noticing that everyone was following behind him, before hopping down the ladder and heading straight for the TV.

* * *

><p>A few hours later, after the action-packed marathon was finally finished, the penguins finally headed to bed for some shuteye.<p>

However, before long, the hatch slowly opened, and Julien hopped down, sneaking over towards where all of the penguins were. Once he finally made it to the beds, though, he looked back towards where the ladder was and noticed that he was by himself.

"Maurice! Get down here!" he whispered loudly towards the hatch.

A few seconds later, Maurice slowly made his way down the ladder towards Julien, letting out a big yawn when he reached him.

"Listen, your majesty, can we just get this over with? I would like to get some sleep." he whispered.

"So would I, but that bright sign won't let me! Now help me carry Tico."

"Rico."

"Whatever."

Both Julien and Maurice went over to Rico, Maurice taking the head and Julien handling the feet. Despite Rico's bulk, they somehow managed to carry the weapons specialist out of his bunk and drag him up the ladder, and he still continued to sleep like a baby.

"Wow, he sleeps almost as hard as you do, Maurice."

"Wha-I don't sleep that hard!" said Maurice in defense.

"Of course you do. It's like-"

Julien then began making exaggerated snoring sounds, leaning over the sleeping form of Rico as they stopped for a moment in between the penguin and lemur habitats.

"Look, let's just get this done. I'm really tired right now, and I want to go back to bed." said Maurice as he desperately wanted to change the subject.

"Ugh, fine. Ruin all of de fun, why don't you?"

Maurice and Julien somehow managed to drag Rico over the fence into their habitat, which in truth meant that Maurice was doing most of the work while Julien barely pushing Rico over. Once he was over and they managed to carry him over near where the billboard was, that was when Julien's plan hit a wall.

"So, uh…how are we going to be waking him up?" asked Julien.

Maurice rolled his eyes before walking over and roughly shaking Rico.

"Come on, wake up. Julien needs you for something."

Maurice's shaking apparently somehow managed to do the trick, as Rico's eyes slowly opened before the penguin immediately shot up to his feet, flipping Maurice over his shoulder before adopting a fighting stance. It didn't take long, though, before Rico suddenly realized where he was and looked around in confusion.

Before Rico could walk away and begin making his way back home to go back to bed, Julien suddenly jumped in front of him, blocking his path.

"Uh, hey dere, neighbor! Sorry I had to be dragging you out of your bed so late, but I really need to be getting rid of dis ting right away!"

Rico gave Julien a wary look for a moment before launching into a string of gibberish, the only English words coming out being 'no kaboom'.

"Eh, I have no idea what you just said, but you don't have to listen to dat bossy penguin! If you listen to me, your king, you can do de kabooms whenever you want to."

Rico paused as he glanced back towards the penguin habitat, unsure about what he should do. Julien, sensing his uncertainty, hopped over in front of Rico's view and pantomimed explosions.

"Eh? Eh?"

"Um…okay!" said Rico, shrugging.

"Great! Now, all I need you to be doing is to blow dat sign up so dat I can finally get de royal sleep! I'm already feeling de effects of not having it!"

Excited, Rico regurgitated a stick of dynamite. Before he could light it and set it next to the billboard, though, Julien interrupted him.

"Oh come on, crazy penguin! Dat sign is not going to be falling with just the one boomy stick! We need many more sticks if we are going to be taking that down!"

In the back of Rico's psychotic mind, there was a small feeling that what he was about to do was only going to lead to trouble with Skipper and the others, but the rest of his mind completely drowned out that feeling. All he could think about was how cool it was going to be to watch the billboard go up in a huge inferno.

Giddy, Rico hacked up some more sticks of dynamite, bundling them together into two different stacks and attaching them to the two supports holding the billboard up.

He then lit the fuses before getting the hell out of there, leading King Julien to a safe distance before turning around and watching as the billboard went up in flames just like he predicted, an earth shattering kaboom accompanying the scene.

"Yeah! Woo-hoo!" celebrated Rico as he watched the explosion.

"Yes, finally! I can finally go to sleep!" said Julien, turning towards Rico and giving the weapons specialist a hug.

However, the jubilation was short lived, as the two of them were interrupted by a voice that Rico knew only too well.

"What in the Sam Hill is going on here?"

Rico looked over towards where the voice came from and saw a thoroughly pissed off Skipper, as well as Kowalski and Private, who joined their commander when they too were woken up by the explosion.

"I don't remember authorizing late night pyrotechnics. Rico, explain yourself, soldier!"

Rico was about to do as he was asked, only Julien to step in front of him, the lemur deciding that he was going to take care of the explanation.

"What he was doing was taking care of the bright sign for me, like I wanted him to. Since you were being de bossy penguin, though, I had to do it when you weren't looking."

"Rico! Is Ringtail telling the truth? Answer me!"

Rico immediately launched into another string of gibberish as he attempted to explain himself.

"So, you're saying that you were taken here while you were asleep? But how did they manage to break in to our HQ without setting off the alarm?"

Kowalski nervously coughed, which caused Skipper to round on him.

"Um…I was still in the middle of working on some upgrades to our security system, and I may have forgotten to turn it back on before we went to bed."

"Kowalski…"

"Right, Skipper."

Kowalski slapped himself as hard as he could, which thankfully satisfied Skipper as he turned back towards Rico.

"Now, as much as I want to blame Ringtail for kidnapping one of my soldiers to do his dirty work, that doesn't mean that you're not any less at fault. As of now, you are hereby banned from the kabooms until further notice."

Rico's beak fell open upon hearing Skipper's proclamation, but the crazed penguin barely had any time to process it before Kowalski walked up and leaned over to whisper something into Skipper's earhole.

"He'll be fine, Kowalski. A little time away from blowing stuff up will do him a lot of good."

"But I remember you specifically saying the same thing about letting him have some bouts of uncontrolled mayhem. Wouldn't bottling him up like that only lead to more trouble?"

"Well, I suppose that could be true, but I think it would be best just to let this go through. Rico needs to learn that there are times where blowing something up isn't the answer."

Although Rico was distraught about getting cut off from his only real source of entertainment, he remained silent, not wanting to anger Skipper even more. As the four penguins headed back to their HQ to finally go back to sleep, Rico silently sulked, wishing that Julien wasn't as persuasive as he was.

* * *

><p>At first, everything was going smoothly, as Rico successfully managed to deal with some of the issues that have popped up around the zoo using different methods than explosions. Admittedly, though, he did have Skipper telling him what to do, but Rico has not tried to suggest blowing something up, at least at the moment.<p>

However, as Kowalski predicted, Rico not being able to fully express himself with his violent urges has led to some major problems.

Down in the HQ, the penguins were enjoying their free time doing what they usually do, with Kowalski in his lab, Private in front of the TV, Skipper enjoying his cup of coffee, and Rico spending time with Ms. Perky.

However, Rico was looking noticeably stressed, as his eyes were constantly darting around the room. His lack of focus has also led to him being a little rougher with Ms. Perky than he usually was which Private couldn't help but notice as he looked over from his spot in front of the television.

"Rico? Are you alright over there?"

Rico immediately whipped his head over to face Private, slightly frightening the young penguin when he noticed the wild-eyed look on the weapons specialist.

"Skippah! I think something weird's going on with Rico!"

"Just ignore it, Private. He'll be fine."

Private tried his best to ignore Rico, but as he tried to focus on his show, he couldn't help but feel like there were a pair of eyes that were boring into the back of his head.

"Rico, please! You're scaring me!" he said, whipping around to face Rico, only to realize that the mentally fragile penguin had returned to playing with Ms. Perky.

"Private! Calm yourself! You're just imagining things. As I've said before, he'll be fine. He just needs some more time."

Skipper's hypothesis, however, was immediately proved wrong, when Rico suddenly snapped. Dropping Ms. Perky, Rico immediately got to his feet, hacking up a few sticks of dynamite as he ran towards the ladder, babbling incoherently.

"We've got a maniac on the loose! Pursue and restrain!" yelled Skipper.

Private saluted before giving chase to Rico. However, he was the only one who did so, as Skipper soon noticed that the door to Kowalski's lab was closed. Sighing exasperatedly, Skipper walked over and flung the door open, revealing Kowalski in the middle of mixing some of his chemicals.

"Kowalski, what are you doing? Didn't you hear my orders?" he said, annoyed.

"Oh, um…sorry, Skipper. I was kind of engrossed in working towards another breakthrough. I won't go into any details, though. It would be kind of boring to people like you."

Kowalski nervously coughed, unsure of what else to do.

"Rico…Go after him!"

Kowalski jumped, realizing what Skipper was trying to say. He quickly removed his goggles and gloves before rushing out the door, Skipper following once he gave the retreating analyst an exasperated look.

* * *

><p>Kowalski and Skipper managed to catch up to Private not too long after they left the HQ.<p>

"Private, status report!"

"I've been trying my best to catch up to him, Skippah, but Rico's been a slippery little devil."

"We need to make sure that he doesn't light those two sticks of dynamite that he had in his flippers. Kowalski! Private! Try to lead him into a corner. We're gonna box him in."

"Aye, Skippah!" said Private before belly sliding off towards the crazed weapons specialist.

As for Kowalski, he simply saluted before heading off in the same direction as Private. Skipper began following a few seconds after the two of them left, intending to bring up the rear in their formation.

The three of them eventually managed to catch up to Rico and successfully box him in over by Joey's habitat, who looked none too pleased to see the four of them in his vicinity.

"Hey, what are you four blokes doing so close to Joey?"

"That's classified, marsupial!" said Skipper, despite Joey easily being able to discern what was going on with the scene in front of him. Thankfully, though, Joey decided not to insert himself into the picture, choosing instead to hop over to the other side of his habitat and ignore the four of them.

With Joey out of the way, Skipper returned his focus to Rico, who was clutching the sticks of dynamite he hacked up for dear life.

"Now hand over those sticks of dynamite, Rico. You don't want to light them. Lighting them will only lead to more trouble." said Skipper as he attempted to talk the weapons specialist down.

Rico looked for a moment like he was going to listen to Skipper and hand the sticks over, but as the other penguins attempted to walk towards him, he hacked up a match, lighting both sticks of dynamite.

"Rico, no!"

Rico tossed the dynamite in front of him, forcing the other penguins to flee. However, when they finally managed to hide behind a rock, hoping that it would be sufficient to block the explosion, they soon realized that there was no explosion.

Looking out from their hiding place, the three of them were surprised to find Rico laughing, as the sticks of dynamite fizzled out in front of him.

"Those were fakes?" asked Private as he turned towards Skipper.

He didn't get an answer, though, as Skipper looked like he was annoyed at being led on like that. Both Private and Kowalski braced themselves as they watched Skipper stomp towards Rico, expecting the commander to yell, but what they heard next made their beaks drop.

"You know, that was actually a pretty good prank."

Rico stared at his commander for a second, not expecting him to take it so well, but he soon decided just to take it as a good thing. He uttered another string of gibberish, adding a questioning tone to it as he addressed Skipper.

"Of course! Even I almost believed that your lack of being able to explode things made you go over the deep end."

Confused, both Private and Kowalski joined them.

"So…does this mean that Rico's fine?" asked Private.

"Yep!"

"Oh, okay."

Although Private was still confused with how this all played out, he decided it was best just to let it go. As the three of them began walking back to the HQ, Skipper turned to face Rico.

"So, do you understand where I'm coming from about the best time to use your kabooms?"

Rico nodded.

"Good. I'm hoping that I won't have to resort to these sorts of measures again. Is that clear?"

Rico nodded once again, looking like he understood.

"Excelante! Oh, and also, if Ringtail tries to do something to you like he did to start this whole mess, you have my express permission to beat him up. Am I understood?"

"Uh-huh." said Rico, a devious smile suddenly appearing on his face.

Satisfied, Skipper returned to focusing on the path in front of him, as the penguins continued to head back to their HQ, looking forward to another normal day in front of them.


	22. Hippies (Skipper)

**Chapter 22 – Hippies (Skipper's Story)**

It was yet another beautiful day inside the Central Park Zoo as the sun rose, greeting the animals as they woke up to prepare for another day, including the penguins.

However, instead of training like they usually would, Skipper decided to give them the day off, as they had just completed the last of Skipper's grueling training sessions. The other three penguins were quite grateful when they heard the news.

With the extra free time they were given, the penguins decided to spend time doing their usual activities, except for Skipper. He still had his usual cup of coffee in his flipper, but instead of poring over mission plans, he chose instead to pull out a newspaper that he managed to swipe from one of the humans yesterday.

The room was silent, except for the sounds of the Lunacorns on TV, as well as Rico sweet-talking Ms. Perky, before a loud spitting noise cut through the HQ.

"Skippah? Are you alright?" asked Private, who turned around to face Skipper once he heard the spitting.

Skipper didn't answer immediately as he was too busy coughing, having taken too big of a sip of coffee and choked on it.

"I'm fine, Private. Just a little surprised."

"Really? How so?"

Private got up and walked over to where Skipper was sitting, just as the commander pointed towards a section of the newspaper.

"Um, Skippah, you do realize that we can't read, right? And even if we could, the coffee's pretty much ruined it now."

"I know that, Private. Look at the picture, though."

Private took a closer look at the picture located next to the section that Skipper pointed to. Although it was a little hard to make out due to the coffee stains, he could easily tell what kind of people they were.

"Wait a second. Aren't they-"

"Hippies Private, and lots of them. Man, what I wouldn't give to take those jobless deadbeats out."

At the mention of the word hippies, Rico came to join them, curious to see what was going on.

"While I'm not one to step all over your dreams, Skippah, I'm not sure we'll be able to actually do anything to those hippies considering we don't even know where they are."

"Nonsense, Private. I'm sure that they're probably gushing all about it on the news. We'll find out exactly where they're gonna be."

Ignoring the spilled coffee, which was now dripping on to the floor, Skipper walked over to the television and changed the channel to the news, and in a bout of incredible timing, Chuck Charles was talking about just what they were looking for.

"And in entertainment news, hippies from all over New York City are flocking towards Central Park for the New York City Music Festival."

"That's right, Chuck. Two days of folk music and all of the peace and love that you can handle. Doesn't that sound exciting?"

"You bet it does, Bonnie!"

Both Chuck and Bonnie Chang exchanged a hearty laugh before Skipper turned the television off, shivering in disgust.

"Looks like it's worse than we thought, boys. We need to prevent that concert from happening!"

"But Skippah! Isn't it wonderful that so many people are coming together to spread a message of love and happiness? It's like Prince Shares-a-Lot says. It's always nice to share with others, because one day you might get that share back!"

Private looked at Skipper, expecting him to follow along with his attempt to respect the hippies' space. However, instead of doing so, Skipper turned towards Rico and nodded.

Private was slightly confused, wondering exactly what Skipper meant by that nod. He soon got his answer, though, when Rico walked over and slapped him, walking back over to his original spot almost like nothing had happened.

"While I do appreciate how much of an asset your positive attitude is to this team, I will not be hypnotized into believing your mumbo-jumbo about hippies. Hippies are the scum of the earth, and I believe that it is my duty to turn these freeloaders into worthwhile members of society! And if I have to slap a few to prove my point, then that's even better."

Private still wanted to try and convince Skipper that hippies weren't all bad, but before he could do so, Skipper held up a flipper, silencing the young penguin before he could speak.

"Look at it this way, Private. Having to listen to that hippie trash even for a minute is hard enough, but two days straight of it is an even worse form of torture than anything that the Danish could do, especially for Rico!"

Private sighed, realizing that it wasn't worth trying anymore considering Skipper had pretty much put his foot down.

"Now that Private's in, does anyone else have any objections to our plan?"

Skipper looked towards Rico, who had regurgitated a baseball bat and was waving it in the air above him.

"Hippies!" he yelled.

"I'll take that as a no. How about you, Kowalski?" asked Skipper, as he noticed the analyst had just come out from his lab.

"I'm sorry, what are we talking about? I didn't hear the conversation." said Kowalski, who had been shut in his lab most of the morning and had not heard anything coming from the main room.

Skipper sighed before recounting the entire plan to Kowalski.

"Well…I suppose that getting rid of them would help with the peace and quiet around here." pointed out Kowalski.

"Great! Everyone's in, so let's go slap us a hippie or two!" said Skipper, eager to head out and start the mission.

However, before he could take a step, Private spoke up.

"But Skippah, isn't the zoo about to open? I'm pretty sure they'll notice if we're not in our habitat, especially if we're busy 'slapping hippies', as you said."

Skipper looked over at the clock and noticed that it was indeed getting close to when the zoo opens.

"Well, that's a shame. Looks like the hippies win for now. Not for long, though."

Skipper's eyes narrowed once he finished that sentence, looking in the direction of where the park was. After a few seconds, Skipper eventually started moving again, as he headed towards the hatch to prepare for the arrival of the humans.

As for the other penguins, they quickly followed once they realized that Skipper was already up, nearly stumbling out of the hatch as they caught up to the commander. Thankfully, there was no one around, so their moment of haste went unnoticed.

Skipper glanced over at the others, who by that point had joined him in their usual line.

"Smile and wave, boys. Just smile and wave."

Every one of the penguins did as Skipper ordered and began running through their cute and cuddly routines just as Alice opened the gate and let everyone in for the day.

* * *

><p>Closing time finally came, and to the penguins it couldn't have come fast enough. An hour into their day of performing, the penguins were suddenly assaulted by the sounds of folk music coming from the amphitheater in the park, and it came through pretty clearly, which didn't make Skipper too happy.<p>

"I thought that hippie music was quiet! How can we hear it from here if it's all the way out in the park?" he whispered loudly towards Kowalski while in the middle of playfully rolling around on the fake iceberg.

"They must be using the sound system that everyone who performs inside the amphitheater uses. Frankly, I'm surprised that acoustic guitars would be able to be amplified, but those hippies can be a crafty bunch." replied Kowalski.

"Oh, that does it. Once the zoo closes, they are going down!"

Private glanced over at Skipper, slightly disappointed that the commander wasn't willing to adjust his view on the hippies. Not wanting to think about what Skipper had in mind for them, Private decided to distract himself from his thoughts by listening to the music that was being played, and to the young penguin, it was beautiful.

Unfortunately, with Private's imagination becoming more pronounced with how long he was listening, his cute and cuddly shtick was starting to suffer, and Skipper noticed it very quickly.

"Focus, Private! I know that you're listening to that hippie clap-trap, but there's still quite a bit of time left before the humans leave."

"Aye, Skippah!"

Although Private was still in to listening to the music, he made sure to avoid making the same mistake that he did with his routine.

Once closing time finally came around, and Alice began hurriedly shooing the guests towards the gates, all of the penguins were starting to suffer due to the constant torture they had to endure.

Both Skipper and Rico looked noticeably annoyed as they waved at the last remaining guests while they headed towards the exits. Private was still busy listening to the music, while Kowalski was doing his best to ignore it. Unfortunately for the scientist, it wasn't working.

Finally, once everyone left and the gates finally closed for the day, Skipper and the other penguins finally dropped their acts.

"Finally! And here I was thinking it would never end! That was worse than having to listen to Hans speak!" said Skipper, sighing heavily.

"You know, you never did mention what the problem is between you two, Skippah."

"And it'll stay that way if I have anything to say about it, Private. Now let's go. I don't want Rico to start hocking out something we need."

Skipper immediately hopped over the fence on to the ground in front of the habitat, sliding towards the exit of the zoo, the others following just a few seconds later.

* * *

><p>Eventually, the penguins found themselves in front of the amphitheater inside Central Park. The four of them were on one of the branches of a tree as they watched the scene in front of them.<p>

There were at least a hundred different hippies seated all around the amphitheater as they watched another hippie play a sitar, which was amplified thanks to the high-tech sound system surrounding the performer.

"Look at them, Rico. The unwashed masses of the Earth, and I mean literally. I don't know how long it's been since they've taken their last bath.

"Pee-yew!" said Rico, emphasizing Skipper's point with a wave of his flipper across his beak.

"You've got the right idea there, my compatriot. That's why we need to do something about these lowlifes. Kowalski! Give me some options!"

Skipper looked over at Kowalski, who had a pair of binoculars pressed to his face as he surveyed the area around them.

"If I can get backstage, I should be able to rewire the sound system. Hopefully then we should be able to play something a little more…suitable."

"Well then, let's get to it. Team, move out!"

Skipper and the rest of the penguins hopped down from the tree before beginning to make their way around the amphitheater. Unfortunately, not all of the hippies were inside the boundaries of the amphitheater, as some of them were spread out around the grass on blankets as they also were listening to the music.

This made getting backstage without getting spotted a little more difficult for the penguins, but they still managed to reach the other side of the area without a hitch by going along the perimeter of the area.

Once they reached the side of the stage, Skipper took the lead, boosting each of the other penguins up on to the stage before flipping up himself, immediately disappearing behind the curtain before any one got any ideas.

Skipper scanned the area around him, looking for anyone suspicious that could blow their cover. When he didn't see anyone around, he took it as a good sign and let out the breath he was holding in before heading over to where Kowalski and the others were.

"Kowalski, status report! How are we doing on that sound system?" he asked once he reached the others.

"Just a few more wires to move around and we should be able to get it working, Skipper."

"And I brought the CD to play, Skippah!" said Private, holding said CD over his head.

Skipper took a look at the CD and noticed that there was nothing written on it.

"Private? You do realize that there's nothing written on that CD, right? How are we supposed to know what's on it?"

Private, realizing what Skipper said, brought the CD back down to eye level and noticed that there was indeed nothing on there. However, instead of being embarrassed, Private just smiled.

"Don't worry, Skippah. Rico and I found it in a box over there. It was labeled 'Progressive Rock'."

"Hmm, sounds fancy. Go ahead and put it in. We'll see if it works."

"Aye, Skippah!"

Private saluted before making his way to the sound system. However, before he could do so, the sound of the sitar on stage was suddenly elevated to almost ear-piercing levels.

"Kowalski! What in the heck just happened?" yelled Skipper.

Kowalski turned around from where he was busy rewiring the sound system, a frightened look on his face.

"I think I may have accidentally crossed a couple of wires wrong and raised the volume to unspeakable levels!"

"Well then, fix it! Fix it now, before we all go crazy!"

Kowalski turned back around, intending to find the error in his rewiring job, but in a moment of really bad timing, a rock band had just come on to the stage while the penguins were busy talking. There also happened to be a large speaker standing right next to the sound system that the penguins were next to, so when the band began playing, the penguins were immediately blown backwards from the sheer force of the sound.

The penguins all landed with a grunt before Skipper quickly picked himself back up and pointed towards the sound system.

"Somebody get over there and cut that wire!"

The other penguins picked themselves up as well, but as they began heading towards the sound system, the speaker began fighting back thanks to the band. The penguins desperately tried to get to their destination, giving it all they got against the force coming from the speaker, but it soon got to the point where they were unable to really give it all they got anymore.

Private was the first to falter, as his legs soon gave out of him. Flying backwards, Private smacked into the side of the stage, barely managing to grab on to the edge of the stage before rolling off of the concrete.

"Skippah, help! I can't hold on anymore!" he yelled, hoping that Skipper would be able to hear him over the noise.

Thankfully, Skipper did manage to hear Private's cry for assistance. However, this left the commander in a bind. As much as he wanted to deal with the sound system issue, the penguin credo prevented him from simply letting Private go and concentrating on the mission.

"I've always hated having to deal with the Leader's Paradox." Skipper said to himself, sighing before turning around back towards where Private was.

"Kowalski! Keep heading for the sound system! I'm gonna go rescue Private!" he yelled back over his shoulder as he began running towards the young penguin.

During the time that Skipper was making his way towards Private, the band outside was finishing up one of their slower and lighter songs, but once Skipper made it over, the speaker once again started pounding.

Nearly bowled over from the sudden change in volume, Skipper managed to grab on to Private's feet before he was flung off of the stage. Unfortunately, the added weight meant that Private could only manage to hold on to the stage for a few more seconds, and the two penguins were soon sent flying, landing with a grunt near the edge of the tree boundary.

This left Kowalski and Rico to handle completing the mission, and despite the scientist's best efforts, the speaker won out against him, and he flew off as well.

"Rico! Save yourself!" he yelled as he was sent flying.

Luckily, Rico had no intentions of letting the speaker win. Steeling himself, he began walking forwards once more, his bulk handling most of the force that was coming from the speaker.

Eventually, Rico finally managed to make it up to the sound system with some more effort given. However, once he managed to grab on to the edge of the compartment that held all of the wires, this left him in a bit of a bind.

He wasn't as smart as Kowalski, obviously, so he had no chance to figure out how to fix the wires, so Rico decided that he needed to do it his way.

Hacking up a chainsaw, Rico put one of his feet inside the compartment to brace himself before revving the chainsaw. Despite the noise of the chainsaw clearly being outstripped by the band, Rico wasn't worried.

Waiting for a moment when the band wasn't going at full blast, Rico immediately stepped out of the compartment, slamming the chainsaw down on to the soundboard with as much force as he could muster.

It took a few seconds, but Rico successfully managed to saw cleanly through the sound system. After shutting the chainsaw off, Rico watched the now mangled mess of a soundboard spark listlessly before suddenly hearing a buzzing noise coming from somewhere.

Confused, he looked around, wondering where the noise was coming from, before the thought went out of his head once the others finally returned to join him.

"Great work, Rico!"

The voice of Skipper came out as muffled, which confused Rico.

"Huh?"

"I said great work, Rico!" he yelled.

Not getting a reply, Skipper turned towards Kowalski to get some answers.

"Kowalski! Analysis!" he said loudly, hoping the analyst would hear.

"The sheer volume of the music must have blown out our earholes! I can barely hear anything that you guys are saying!"

Skipper only barely managed to catch what Kowalski said, but he did manage to get the gist of it. Nodding, he made his way towards the curtain, intending to see what was going on out front. What he saw out front, though, came as a definite surprise to him.

"They're all gone!"

Indeed, the only sign of life in the immediate area besides them was the band, who had only just noticed the fact that everyone in the stands was gone. They looked around in confusion, wondering what had just happened, before deciding to just pack it up and go home.

Poking his face back through the curtain, he turned around to face the others.

"Mission accomplished, boys! Looks like we chased those freeloading hippies back to where they came from! Good riddance, I say!"

Unfortunately, with Skipper acting as smug as he was, he forgot to raise his voice, so when he finally took a look at the others, he found that they were looking at him in confusion, having not heard a word he said.

Sighing, he turned back towards the zoo, gesturing towards the others as he began sliding back towards home.

"Come on, let's get back to the HQ and get some sleep. I've got a massive headache coming on."

Skipper frankly didn't care whether any of the others heard what he just said, but thankfully they managed to get the message from his flipper gesture and they began following behind him.

* * *

><p>The penguins finally managed to get back to their HQ a little while later, and they all immediately went to bed, not wanting to deal with the splitting headaches they were all going through. Thankfully, though, once the next morning came along, they were greeted with the sound of silence, which they were all especially thankful for, as their hearing had finally returned during the morning.<p>

"Aah, isn't this wonderful? That clean New York air, not being polluted by that hippie garbage. I could really get used to it." said Skipper, smiling as he breathed in the air around him.

"I suppose so, Skipper. It's not so bad once you get used to it." said Kowalski.

"It's too bad I didn't really get a chance to slap a few of them. You know, that would really get the juices flowing."

"I'm sure you'll be okay without that, Skipper."

Skipper simply shrugged, choosing to remain silent, as he was content that he finally managed to chase away all of the hippies. Hopefully this would mean that they would no longer bother him, but Skipper wasn't too hopeful about that. Still, he would be ready for them.


	23. Five (Marlene)

God, coming up with ideas for Marlene stories is getting really difficult all of a sudden. I'm not even really all that thrilled with what I have on backlog, too. If anyone has any suggestions for Marlene stories, I'd be happy to consider them. Send me a PM if you've got any. Thanks.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 23 – Five (Marlene's Story)<strong>

It was another beautiful day inside the Central Park Zoo, just after morning broke. Every one of the animals were getting ready for yet another day of entertaining the zoogoers. However, surprisingly the only one who wasn't already up and getting ready was Marlene.

Marlene was up late during the previous night having had to deal with some pebbles being knocked loose from the top of her cave and landing inside her bed, making it difficult to sleep comfortably.

Thankfully, she was able to at least get some after cleaning the mess up, but when the morning came, she was more interested in sleeping than actually having to get up and get ready for the day.

So, she decided she would try and squeeze in some more sleep time before the zoo opened. However, with her being out like a light, she failed to notice that she was suddenly being carried away.

Despite the turbulence she was going through during her journey, Marlene remained completely asleep, which is a bit of a surprise considering she's usually a pretty light sleeper.

Anyway, Marlene soon came to a stop before suddenly flying through the air and landing right inside a pool, which woke her up in a hurry.

After barely managing to pull herself back up to the surface, she dragged herself on to the nearest solid land she could find, coughing as she flopped to the ground.

However, before she could really try to figure out where she was, a voice came from off to the side that answered Marlene's question for her.

"Oh good, you're awake. I told Rico to be careful, but I guess anybody can be clumsy this early in the morning."

"Sor'y." said another voice.

Picking herself up, Marlene turned around and found out that she was now inside the penguin habitat and the penguins themselves were standing right in front of her.

"Guys? What am I doing over here? I did kind of want to get some extra sleep in before the zoo opened."

"That's a good question, Marlene. Kowalski, give the lady here a rundown of our plan." said Skipper.

Almost like clockwork, Kowalski pulled out his notebook and scribbled a few drawings on to one of the pages, showing it to Marlene.

"According to our intelligence, which is quite high if you ask me…" he started, chuckling at his own joke. However, the flat stare that Marlene gave him made the analyst fall silent, coughing before continuing on.

"Anyway, we have received word from Fred that a little boy has managed to get his kite stuck inside a tree within the park's boundaries."

"Really? Fred's your reliable source?" asked Marlene, giving Kowalski an unimpressed look.

"Well, I guess even Fred can realize something's wrong when the kite ended up in his tree." said Kowalski in a slightly irritated tone.

"Okay, fair enough. One problem, though. What do I have to do with it?"

"Well, it turns out that we did some early morning recon and found out that the kite is stuck way too high in the tree for just us four to reach. Obviously, this meant that we needed our fifth man, or in this case, woman."

Marlene paused as she considered what Kowalski said. As much as she wanted to just say no and go back to bed, she decided that it was probably going to be quick, so there wasn't really anything wrong with helping out.

"Alright, I'll help you guys out. One question, though. Why couldn't you guys have just woke me up inside my habitat instead of dragging me all the way over here?" she asked, annoyed.

"No surveillance, Marlene. Kowalski's done multiple sweeps of this habitat for any hidden cameras or listening devices and found none. However, your habitat is a different story." said Skipper.

"Speaking of, Marlene, I would really appreciate it if you would submit your habitat to a similar search. We've already combed through most of the zoo, but all we have left is yours and the lemurs." said Kowalski.

"And Joey's as well!"

"Thank you, Private. And Joey's. Still, I doubt that it should take us too long."

"Ugh, fine. If it'll make you happy. Now, where's this kite? I want to get this thing down before the zoo opens."

"Not to worry, Marlene. We'll be back inside our habitats before you know it." said Skipper, giving Marlene a smug look that she knew meant something was going to go wrong.

"Skipper, your hubris is showing." said Marlene backhandedly.

Skipper quickly glanced down to check himself, having not quite understood what Marlene meant. However, once he saw there was nothing there, he sighed, remaining silent.

Soon after, with nobody else bringing in their input, Skipper took it as a sign that they were ready to go, and the four penguins immediately hopped over the barricade with Marlene following a few seconds behind due to being held up by a random yawn.

* * *

><p>Contrary to what Marlene believed, the mission went pretty smoothly. The only real wrench in their plan happened to be Fred, who met the five of them once they finally reached his tree.<p>

"Hey guys! What are you doing here so early?"

Skipper paused, a headache already coming up from realizing that Fred had already forgotten about their meeting earlier in the day. However, before he could berate the squirrel for forgetting, he noticed Kowalski signaling from off to the side.

Confused, Skipper stood there, wondering what Kowalski was trying to say, before the analyst soon got exasperated and walked over to him, leaning over to whisper into his commander's earhole.

"Let me handle this, Skipper. We aren't going to get anywhere if you keep trying to remind him about what happened this morning."

"And you think that you're going to do any better against him?" asked Skipper.

"Well, yeah. I am a genius. I'm sure I'll figure out a way to get through to him."

Skipper noticed the smug look that Kowalski had on his face, making him shake his head in bemusement.

Skipper then stepped aside, allowing Kowalski to take charge of dealing with Fred, but before he could get far, Skipper suddenly spoke up.

"Oh, and by the way, you owe me a quarter for the show-off jar. Somebody forgot to bring it with them when we left."

"Sorry, Skippah! I just didn't want to break the jar and lose all of that money."

"It's quite alright, Private. That's why we need to replace that jar with plastic. Glass breaks way too easily."

"CAN WE PLEASE GET ON WITH IT?" yelled Kowalski, causing the other three penguins to stare at him incredulously.

Kowalski immediately cleared his throat before continuing.

"Apologies for the outburst, Skipper, but we are a bit short on time. The zoo opens in an hour, and I'm sure that you guys know what would happen if Alice sees an empty otter and penguin habitat."

"You heard what the man said! Let's get up that tree and get that kite down!" said Skipper.

Caught off guard by the sudden nature of Skipper's command, Marlene only barely managed to keep up with the penguins as they made their way towards the tree. However, she soon stopped in her tracks as she watched the others bounce up the tree effortlessly before landing on the branch just below the kite.

Sighing, she looked upwards towards the penguins and cupped her hands over her mouth to project her voice.

"Hey guys? A little help here? I can't exactly do what you guys just did."

Skipper was currently in the middle of coordinating the kite rescue effort when he heard the call from down below. Turning around, he started when he realized that Marlene wasn't up there with them.

"Marlene? What are you doing down there? We're burning daylight!"

Marlene simply sighed in disgust before releasing her claws as she began climbing the tree herself. Unfortunately, otters weren't exactly built for climbing trees, especially with how wide Fred's tree was, so all she managed to do was to leave long scratch marks in the bottom of the tree.

Sighing, Skipper turned towards Rico.

"Rico! Give Marlene a hand down there."

Eager, Rico immediately hopped back down the tree before quickly grabbing Marlene by the hand and tossing her up the tree.

Marlene was completely caught off guard by Rico's method of helping her up the tree, so she barely had time to latch herself on to a higher portion of the tree.

Clinging on for dear life, it took Marlene a few seconds to notice the flipper being held out in her direction as she was too busy freaking out.

Thankfully, she did eventually notice when Private spoke up.

"Grab on, Marlene! We'll boost you up!"

Marlene wanted nothing more than to keep her claws latched on to the tree, but when she noticed her claws start to tear through the bark, she immediately went into action.

Using her feet as leverage, she pushed off of her perch, lifting herself up just enough so that she was able to grab Private's flipper.

Even though initially Marlene was unsure that Private would even be able to pull her up, she soon noticed that the other penguins were also clinging on to the tree, forming a stack so that they would be able to actually reach her.

It took a few seconds, but the penguins were eventually able to swing Marlene upwards and towards the branch they were currently on. Marlene did stumble for a moment after her landing, but she managed to hold her ground, and she turned towards the others.

"Good. Now that everyone's here, let's get this kite free. Attack stack, men! Marlene, you're on top."

The penguins immediately went into the formation. Marlene, however, didn't move.

"Whoa, hang on. You're asking me to be the one to get that kite? I've seen how far out that kite is."

Skipper sighed before hopping down from the stack.

"Marlene, we've been through this before. We're an elite penguin commando unit, and we've spent countless hours perfecting all of the techniques that we use on a regular basis."

"So you promise that you're not going to drop me?" asked Marlene.

"I'll be holding on to you the entire time. I promise I will not drop you."

Marlene was still reluctant to go through with it, but when she noticed the genuine smile that Skipper had on his face, she relented.

"Fine. Let's get this over with."

Skipper nodded, apparently satisfied, and the two of them returned to the others, who were all still in the stack formation. Skipper hopped up and took his position on top of the stack before looking down at Marlene.

"Be careful climbing up, Marlene. Private can be a little ticklish."

Despite the emphatic denial from Private, Marlene didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, so she retracted her claws before slowly climbing up the tower of penguins.

She managed to climb up both Rico and Kowalski without any issues, but when she reached Private, she could hear him trying to stifle his giggles. Nervous, she took it slow, not wanting to make the situation worse.

When she finally reached Skipper, she let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding in, before climbing up the commander's body and balancing herself on top of Skipper's shoulders, refusing to move an inch until she felt his flippers wrap tightly around her legs.

"Alright Marlene, we're going to take this one step at a time. Let me know if something's going on, alright?"

Marlene was starting to become increasingly nervous as the realization that she was standing on what was essentially the smallest platform she's ever seen came to light, so she could only manage a nod, too frightened to speak.

Apparently satisfied despite Marlene not answering, Skipper looked down towards Rico.

"Alright Rico, it's time for us to start moving. Don't overdo it, though."

Rico was too busy focusing on the task ahead, so he didn't answer Skipper. Instead, he took a step forwards, taking it slow before slowly increasing the speed of his steps so that they would get there within a reasonable time frame.

Eventually, the stack reached the end of the branch, and Rico stopped in his tracks, being as careful as he could to avoid causing the branch to break on them.

"Can you see the kite up there, Marlene?" asked Skipper as he looked up towards the otter, who was doing her best not to look down.

"Yeah, I can see it. It's a bit out of my reach, though."

"Too high or too far?"

"Too far." said Marlene, despite really not wanting to thanks to how far the kite was compared to them.

"Looks like we're gonna need to bend the stack forward some. Rico, can you bend forwards?" said Kowalski as he looked down towards the weapons expert.

Rico complied with Kowalski's suggestion, bending forwards as far as he could manage. Unfortunately, this made holding up four different animals much more difficult, so it took all of his concentration just to prevent them from tumbling over and taking a fall off of the tree.

"Rico's not going to be able to hold this position for much longer, Skipper! We need to get that kite down stat!" said Kowalski.

Skipper nodded before looking up towards Marlene, who looked none too pleased about their current predicament.

"Alright Marlene, we're gonna swing you out as far as we can towards the kite. Don't worry about trying to grab it. Just release it from the tree and we'll pull you back, alright?"

"Alright." said Marlene, doing her best to remain calm despite her brain telling her to run towards the tree and never let go.

Rico immediately went into action right after Marlene spoke, wrapping his legs around the branch to steady himself as he begun swinging the stack back and forth.

At first, Marlene had a lot of trouble even getting to where the kite was, but Rico started swinging the stack further, her paws brushed the kite, and she knew she was getting close.

"Just a little further, you guys. I've almost got it!"

Unfortunately, right at the moment that last swing happened, Rico's grip on the branch slipped, and the stack tumbled over. Frightened, Marlene barely had time to react.

Despite still being too far away from the kite, Marlene somehow managed to grab on to the string attached to it and successfully pull it out of the tree.

Unexpectedly, though, instead of continuing to head towards the ground, Marlene's momentum suddenly stopped, and she found herself hanging in the air.

Confused, Marlene opened her eyes and looked upwards, only to find that the penguins still had her in their grip, with Rico barely managing to hook his feet on to the branch.

"See, Marlene? I told you that I wouldn't let you fall." said Skipper, smiling despite the strain he was under keeping her from falling.

Relieved, Marlene didn't even complain as the penguins swung her on to a lower branch before they all climbed down towards the bottom of the tree.

* * *

><p>After leaving the kite in a place where the kid would be able to find it, the penguins and Marlene were finally able to head back to the zoo.<p>

Despite how long it took for them to actually get the kite, they were somehow able to return to their habitats with a few minutes to spare before the zoo opened, and Alice was none the wiser.

After a long day of entertaining ended, and Alice shooed the guests out of the gates, Marlene finally deflated, deciding that she might just go to bed early to catch up on some sleep.

However, that unfortunately didn't happen thanks to the penguins showing up once again. This time, though, they thankfully didn't kidnap her, choosing this time to visit her themselves.

"What's going on? I was just going to catch up on a bit of sleep." she asked as she walked towards the penguins.

"Well, there's a funny story…" said Kowalski, scratching absentmindedly at the back of his neck.

"Another mission has come up, and we need a fifth team member again." said Skipper.

Marlene looked at the penguins, slightly annoyed.

"Really? And you're going right to me even though I just helped you guys out? Why can't you just go with Maurice or somebody?"

"Well, we would do that, but our protocol dictates that we only use Maurice if we need a sixth member for our team."

"Which we don't, and that leaves us with you." said Skipper.

Although Marlene really wanted to tell them to screw their penguin protocol and let her sleep, she decided that one more mission wouldn't hurt, so she sighed.

"Fine."

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, Marlene would live to regret that decision. Even after the next mission was completed, the penguins continued to drag her off towards more five-person missions, each one becoming even more dangerous than the last. One of them even landed her on the roof of a skyscraper in the city, which she barely managed to complete.<p>

They also only left her time to sleep and perform during zoo hours, and it was starting to put a strain on her state of mind.

Having had enough, Marlene knew that if she wanted to get back to having a normal life at the zoo, she needed to convince the penguins to find someone else to go on their five-person missions, so she decided to take the initiative and go find the penguins herself.

Thankfully, she didn't need to search for long, as she found them working inside their HQ.

Hopping down the ladder, she immediately went to work.

"Guys, can I talk to you for a second?"

It took a few seconds, but all four of the penguins eventually made their way over to Marlene, looking at her expectantly.

Marlene coughed awkwardly, having not really prepared a speech for them, but she decided it was probably best to wing it and see what happened.

"Look guys, I have no real problem helping you guys out if you really need me, but doing it this much is insane! I've been barely getting any free time to myself because you guys keep dragging me off on missions! I really wish that you guys would find someone else to help you once in a while."

Kowalski opened his beak to point out the rule about Maurice, but Marlene held up her paw to silence him.

"I know about the Maurice only being the sixth man thing, but that really needs to go. Besides, I've never seen you guys take any guff from Julien before. What makes you think you would have trouble getting Maurice away from him?"

None of the penguins answered, which Marlene took as a sign that they were listening.

"All I'm asking is just to give me a break once in a while. I'm not the trained commando you think I am. I'm just a normal otter. Can you do that for me?"

Marlene looked at Skipper expectantly, adopting the cutest face she could muster.

"Alright, fine. We'll find someone else." said Skipper.

"Wait, really?" asked Marlene, confused.

"Yeah. All you had to do was ask."

Marlene spluttered, unable to form coherent sentences as she processed what Skipper said. Finally, she threw up her paws, deciding it wasn't worth it to get mad.

"I'm going to bed."

And she did, refusing to get up for anyone who even tried to visit.


End file.
